The Guilt of Sin and the Joy of Being Counted Righteous

There is nothing worse than to feel the conviction of sin–that miserable sense that you’ve done something wrong and your actions displease God because they violate his commandments. The Psalmist describes this feeling as akin to the oppressive heat of a hot and sweltering summer day. On the other hand, there is nothing better than to know the forgiveness of sin–the sense that the guilt of our wrong-doing has been forgiven, and that we are now considered righteous, as though we had never broken a single one of God’s commandments. The Psalmist describes this sense as a safe hiding place in times of trouble.

This then, is the theme of the 32nd Psalm–where and how to find true happiness and peace stemming from the knowledge that our sins have been forgiven, and that we are counted as righteous before God. When someone once asked Martin Luther which of the Psalms he liked best–he said the Psalms of Paul (the 32nd, the 51st, the 130th, the 146th) because they teach that the full forgiveness of sins comes without works to all who believe.[1] John Calvin says that in this Psalm we are reminded, “what a miserable thing it is to feel God’s hand heavy on account of sin,” but that “the highest and best part of a happy life consists in this, that God forgives a man’s guilt, and receives him graciously into his favor.”[2] Indeed, blessed is the one whose sins are covered.

A Penitential Psalm

The 32nd Psalm is quoted by the Apostle Paul in Romans 4 as an important proof-text for the doctrine of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, on account of Christ alone. This Psalm is often considered a “penitential Psalm”– the prayer of someone deeply affected by the guilt of their sins. It is also the second of seven so-called penitential Psalms in the Psalter, and the second such Psalm to appear in Book One of the Psalter. But this Psalm is much more than a penitential Psalm. It includes thanksgiving on the part of David–the Psalm’s author–as well as an appeal to divine wisdom which is revealed by YHWH. The Psalmist gives thanks for this wisdom, which he has received through the “instruction,” “teaching,” and “counsel” mentioned in verse 8. Having gained this wisdom from God, the Psalmist is moved to confess his sins and gives thanks to YHWH for this wonderful blessing. Made wise by God’s wisdom, the Psalmist describes the contrast between the misery of the conviction of sin and the joy (indeed, the happiness) of knowing that he is forgiven.[3] The Psalmist can describe this sense so well because he has lived it.

The Structure of Psalm 32

In verses 1-2, the blessing under consideration is described against the backdrop of the conviction of sin and the desire to seek forgiveness in verses 3-5. This, in turn, leads the Psalmist to find refuge in the Lord (verses 6-7), where he is given instruction (verses 8-10). The Psalm concludes with a call for God’s people to rejoice in the Lord who has heard their confession of sin, and then graciously granted them the blessedness of knowing that the guilt of their sin has been taken away, that they are “covered,” and that YHWH remembers their sin no more.

The 32nd Psalm has a chiastic structure–a common Hebrew literary device in which the various premises of a sustained argument simultaneously work back from the beginning and the end of a biblical passage, toward the center, in which we find the conclusion (or main point)–which, in this case, is the promise of God’s wisdom in verse 8. The conviction of sin and the assurance of forgiveness are things rightly understood only when one seeks the wisdom of God. The person who seeks this wisdom learns that their own sin is not some minor or incidental thing, and that the forgiveness they presently enjoy comes only because God provides for that forgiveness through a sacrifice which he institutes and which is acceptable to him.[4]

Our Sins Are Ultimately Sins Against God

To put it another way, when we see things from God’s perspective as revealed in his word (i.e., in the light of God’s wisdom) we know that our sins are ultimately sins against the holy God, and that the forgiveness we now enjoy has been purchased for us by the doing and dying of Jesus Christ upon the cross, for us, and in our place. Through the lens of Scripture we see things from God’s perspective (true wisdom)–our sin is a violation of God’s holy law as well as an affront to his holiness. Forgiveness is costly and requires the shedding of the Savior’s blood. Apart from Scripture (and the wisdom of God), sin is no big deal, and forgiveness comes by merely saying we are sorry.

The 32nd Psalm is the first of a series of Psalms (33-41) which speaks of the blessedness of the knowledge of forgiven sin. Both Psalm 33 and 34 speak of the joy of those who know that YHWH is Lord, and who know that God is their refuge. These Psalms encourage YHWH’s people to trust in the Lord, to seek his divine protection, and to know that God’s love surrounds them even in times of trouble. So then, the 32nd Psalm stands at the head of a brief series of Psalms which extol the wisdom of the Lord, while at the same time, this Psalm speaks of sorrow for sin and the joy which comes when we confess our sins to the Lord who then forgives us.

Blessed Are. . .

With this bit of background in mind let us dig into the text of the 32nd Psalm. The Psalm opens in verses 1-2 with the two-fold repetition of a blessing enjoyed by the people of God. “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.” The word “blessed” (’ašerê) can just as easily be translated “happy.”[5] “Happy” is the person who knows that their sins are forgiven, who knows their sin is covered, and against whom the Lord does not count the guilt of their sins. The person is happy because their sins have been removed and hidden from sight. The willingness to confess one’s sins is reflected by the fact that they have no desire to hide things from God (deceit)–as if we could hide things from God. Nothing is more futile and self-defeating than to act as though God does not know what we think, what we feel, or what we have done.

The word translated as “transgression” refers to an act of rebellion. Is not all sin rooted in human rebellion? The word “iniquity” comes from a root meaning to be “crooked,” and refers to the intention to do wrong. “Sin” is something that misses the mark, by falling short of what is expected of us, like an arrow not reaching the target. By repeating three times the nature of human sin, the Psalmist is striving to remind us of the gravity of our sins because our sins render us guilty before God, it offends his holiness, and we must realize that our sin is self-destructive and damages others. We cannot begin to appreciate what God has done for us in Jesus Christ, until we understand what Adam has done to our race by rebelling against God and plunging the human race into sin and death.

If it is vital that we understand the gravity of our sins, it is more important that we understand the blessedness (happiness) of knowing that our sins have been forgiven–that we live and die in the assurance of God’s favor. As the Psalmist used three words for sin, so too he uses three words for forgiveness. The word translated “forgiven” refers to the act of carrying away (“removing”) the guilt of sin, and even the remembrance of it. The Psalmist also speaks of our sins as “covered.” This refers to the satisfaction of God’s wrath so that our sin is no longer a ground (or basis) of God’s anger toward us. Third, our sins–once satisfaction has been made–no longer count against us.[6] It were as though we had never committed them–even though the consequences of our sin may remain.

Paul Appeals to This Psalm in Romans 4

In Paul’s letters (in the New Testament) the apostle often makes a theological point, but follows it up with an example from the Old Testament to clarify his point, as well as to prove to his Jewish readers that the apostle is not making his “gospel” up as he goes along. Paul preaches Christ, but the same Christ Paul preaches is hidden in the types and shadows of the Old Testament. Paul does this in Romans 4:5-8, making the theological point in verse 5, that “the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.” God justifies, or counts as righteous, wicked people who trust in Jesus. To prove his point, Paul cites directly from this Psalm in verses 6-8 of Romans 4. David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: `Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.’” Paul’s point is that there is one gospel, found in both the Old and New Testaments.

A “Tranquilized” Conscience

The Psalmist speaks of things God’s people know and understand. We have all transgressed, sinned, and are filled with iniquities. But God forgives, covers, and no longer counts our sins against us. In light of this three-fold repetition of our sin, and the three-fold repetition of what God does so as to forgive us, John Calvin points out, “the two reasons for which the Psalmist insists so much on the subject of the forgiveness of sins are these—that he may, on the one hand, raise up those who are fallen asleep, inspire the careless with thoughtfulness, and quicken the dull; and that he may, on the other hand, tranquilize fearful and anxious minds with an assured and steady confidence.” The thought of remaining in our sins apart from Christ should absolutely terrify us. God intended his commandments (the law) to do this very thing–convict us of our sin. Although we don’t often think of the forgiveness of sins in terms of tranquilizing fearful and anxious minds, that is a great way to put what the gospel does. If we know that our sins are forgiven, then our consciences are quieted, and we can live and die in the light of God’s favor, and live and die without fear of God’s wrath.

In verses 3-5, the Psalmist describes the blessedness of the forgiveness of sins in light of the miserable condition we are in before we confess them. The Psalmist writes from personal experience–and we can all relate to the misery he describes. “For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.” The Psalmist knows first-hand the misery of unconfessed sin. We’ve all seen people who are “skin and bones” and have a gaunt look, lifeless eyes, and the pallor of sickness. Such people seem spent, they are weak in body, suffer from various maladies, and often have no joy or sense of purpose. David speaks of unconfessed sin as creating a similar condition. Unconfessed sin robs us of our vitality, we feel as though we were wasting away.

The Misery of Unconfessed Sin

David also speaks of groaning all day long—likely inwardly, but not necessarily in silence. Day and night he describes the sense that God’s hand was heavy upon him, never relenting, never easing up, granting David no peace or relief. Like someone whose strength and energy departs from them on a hot, muggy, summer’s day, so too the person with unconfessed sin plods along without relief, with little joy, and every task, even the small ones, seem like an ordeal. Nothing seems right. Nothing works out as it should. Everything feels more difficult and tedious than it really is. This is what unconfessed sin, the corresponding guilt, and the sense that we are under God’s judgment and displeasure does to us. No relief will come until David confesses his sins and pours out his soul unto his Creator-Redeemer.

The Relief of Confession

But in verse 5, David does exactly that. He acknowledges and confesses his sins to YHWH. The same three words for sin he used in verses 1-2 he uses again, only now in a different order. The words he used for forgiveness are replaced by three verbs related to the confession of his sins. First, David acknowledges his sin. He takes full and personal responsibility for them and makes them known, although YHWH already knew them. Second, David does not cover them up. His sins are now exposed and he is naked before the Lord. Third, he confesses his sins to YHWH, who, the Psalmist says, forgave him. There is a basic and fundamental principle here. When we confess our sins, God forgives us.

Now forgiven, and aware of the blessedness of the assurance of God’s favor toward him, in verses 6-7 the Psalmist exhorts all of God’s people to do the same. “Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found; surely in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him. You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance.” The sense here is that suffering the consequences of our actions is a form of discipline. We may feel YHWH’s absence from us, although he never abandons his people, even if he lets us feel like he has departed from us for a time. Or, we may feel the hot breath of his anger in the form of the conviction of sin and the sense of God’s displeasure with us. That too, is a form of chastisement, but not the total abandonment of the sinner to final judgment. A Christian who has not confessed their sins and stubbornly refuses to do so may feel just as the Psalmist describes–like our bones are wasting away, like God’s hand is heavy upon us, and as though our strength is sapped on a hot summer day.

While YHWH Is Near

Notice too that David’s exhortation to the people of God to confess our sins makes clear that although YHWH is always near to his people, there are special times when YHWH may “be found”–i.e., he gives us wisdom to figure out that not confessing our sins leads to the aching bones and summer lethargy described previously. This is why those who trust in Christ (the “godly’) should not delay in confessing their sins. This is also why we should realize that simply continuing on needlessly in the misery which comes from not confessing our sins is utter foolishness. The Psalmist’s words recall to mind the words of Isaiah 55:7-8. “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” When we seek the Lord, we will find him because he wants to be “found.” This is especially true when it comes to confession of our sins.

As the Psalmist points out, there are times when the consequences of our sins, or the effects of the sins of others, or even the mysterious providence of God, circumstances threaten to overwhelm us like a rush of mighty water, which in David’s age was a reference to a flash flood coming down one of the narrow desert valleys (wadi) brought on by a sudden rain. The rapidly rising flood waters will not reach those who pray to YHWH when he is “found” (i.e., when he reveals himself to us). YHWH is our hiding place. YHWH preserves us from trouble. YHWH’s faithfulness produces shouts of joy (deliverance) from his people.

Instruction from YHWH

In verse 8, we come to the main point of the Psalm (the middle of the chiasm). After realizing his sins, confessing them, receiving forgiveness, and then calling others to do the same, it is easy to overlook the fact that the speaker, the “I,” is no longer David, but YHWH. “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.” David quotes these words of YHWH, who now reveals himself as the source of all true wisdom. With the sense of YHWH’s heavy hand removed (the conviction of sin), YHWH graciously instructs his people, teaches his people, and shows us the way we should go. He give us true wisdom. YHWH will counsel us through his word, and metaphorically, he will keep his eye upon us (God doesn’t have eyes). God is ever vigilant in keeping watch over his people. We may sleep, not pay attention, or lose interest, but YHWH never sleeps.

God’s wisdom reminds us not to behave like brute beasts. David exhorts us in verse 9, “be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you.” Animals have to be steered and guided to perform useful tasks. To get them to stay on the path you must stick a bridle in their mouths so as to keep them from going off the path. Those who seek and find God’s wisdom do not need bits and bridles. We now have understanding so as to stay on the right path and not wander off into danger.

The Secular Illusion

In verse 10, the Psalmist returns to the theme of misery found earlier in verses 6-7. David says “many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord.” Those who confess their sins and experience the joy of forgiveness are completely unlike the wicked who ultimately know only sorrow. As Calvin spoke of the forgiveness promised in the gospel as the tranquilization of the conscience because of confidence in God’s promise of pardon, our contemporaries see things much differently. Some actually seek to tranquilize their guilty consciences with tranquilizers. Calvin used the metaphor in terms of someone becoming tranquil (or at peaceful rest) because their conscience was unburdened by sin. Other than alcohol, Calvin knew nothing of modern forms of avoiding a burdened conscience: self-medication, prescribed medication, constant activity, out and out denial of the voice in your head which tells you that all is not right with God. Many attempt to drown out the voice of conscience through the endless pursuit of pleasure, and the avoidance of the realities of life which characterize so much of our culture.

Calvin also knew nothing about the modern phenomena of secularization, wherein people can live their entire lives apart from any sense of God’s existence, without feeling even the slightest hint of conscience that they have sinned against either God or neighbor. The words of the 32nd Psalm ring hollow to people who have never stopped to think about God, that he created them, or that they owe him obedience and that they have sinned against him. Our modern world and all of its technological wonder has created the illusion that there is no God, so people think they have done nothing wrong so long as what they do doesn’t hurt others. In the minds of such secularism, the only thing which creates the sense of weary bones, a lack of strength and energy which the Psalmist connects to sin, is when their cell phone goes dead or their internet connection goes down.

But let calamity come, and the secular illusion will immediately vanish in the light of the reality of a sovereign creator-redeemer who has revealed himself in the person of Jesus Christ. With that reality will come the frightening realization that human misery is not that one’s electronic gadgets don’t work or that instant gratification and pleasure will be delayed, but that the one who created all things demands perfect obedience of us and that we have sinned against him. Then the true misery of which the Psalmist speaks will confront them, and the blessedness of which the Psalmist speaks (and which we so easily take for granted) will become the great desire and the goal of human existence. The only place where the misery of human sinfulness can be satisfied is to be within bounds of the steadfast love of God which comes through faith in Jesus Christ.

The Lament

We know this to be true because God has revealed his glories and perfections to all, and people can suppress the truth in unrighteousness for only so long. People can ignore the world, its creator, and their sin, until reality hits them in the face. As Paul tells us in Romans 2:14-15, “For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them.” We can live as though there is no God and ignore what our conscience its telling us, but Francis Schaeffer was right when he said we cannot make our own world and then live in it. We live in the world God has made, and so our make-believe world will inevitably collide with his, and his world will win, because his is the world that is (reality).

The lament of Psalm 32, and the thanksgiving which arises from the knowledge that our sins are forgiven, may not mean much to the secularist, but to anyone who has been convicted of their sins by measuring themselves against God’s law, David’s words reveal the wisdom of God, the key to a life well-lived. The people of God are assured through God’s word that we are surrounded by the love of God which is revealed to us through the promises of the gospel. “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1John 4:10). When we consider the fact that God’s love for us is prior to our love for him, the exhortation David gives in verse 11 resonates with us at the deepest level of human existence. “Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!” What else can those who love God’s wisdom do, but rejoice in the blessing of the forgiveness of sin, which are our gracious God has bestowed upon us.

Blessed Is the One . . .

As we conclude, we turn again to Romans 4:1-8, where Paul explains how it is that we are to understand the 32nd Psalm in light of the coming of Jesus Christ and the good news of the Gospel. After discussing how Abraham was reckoned righteous before the Lord, through faith, and apart from works, in verses 4-5 Paul speaks of the way in which the forgiveness of sins comes about. “Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.” Those of us whose sins are forgiven are those who have given up trying to save ourselves by our own good works, and who instead look to Jesus Christ, believing that he will forgive us and reckon us righteous. Those who do this, Paul says, are the ungodly, who know our sins and our need of a Savior.

To illustrate what he means, Paul quotes verses 1-2 of the 32nd Psalm. “Just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: `Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.’” Our sins are forgiven, covered, and not counted against us when we trust in Jesus Christ. In fact, God reckons any one of us who believes in Jesus as righteous, and upright before the Lord, people who from a grateful heart seek God in times of trouble, who offer shouts and songs of deliverance, who are glad in the Lord, and rejoice. God justifies the ungodly, but he doesn’t leave us there. His specialty is turning the ungodly into the godly.

There is nothing worse than the conviction of sin, which is why people go to such great lengths to ignore the misery unconfessed sin brings upon us. There is nothing better than to hear the words of David as explained by the Apostle Paul, “blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.” Blessed is the one against whom the Lord counts no iniquity. Indeed, blessed is the one.

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[1] Cited in Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol., 1, 86.

[2] John Calvin, and James Anderson. Commentary on the Book of Psalms (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010).

[3] VanGemeran, Psalms, Vol. 5., 310.

[4] VanGemeran, Psalms, Vol. 5., 310-311.

[5] Kidner, Psalms 1-7, 133.

[6] VanGemeran, Psalms, Vol. 5., 310-311.

[7] John Calvin, and James Anderson. Commentary on the Book of Psalms (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010).

This is taken from a 1915 article, the "Person of Christ" which was first published in The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, edited by James Orr. It is found in volume 4, pp. 2338-2348, and well-worth reading in its entirety. This essay has been reprinted in The Person and Work of Christ, ed John J. Hughes, published by P & R (2025), 37-74.

Warfield is describing the two natures of Christ as forth by Paul in Philippians 2:5-9. He calls attention to the fact that,

It should be carefully observed also that in making this great affirmation concerning Our Lord, Paul does not throw it distinctively into the past, as if he were describing a mode of being formerly Our Lord's, indeed, but no longer His because of the action by which He became our example of unselfishness. Our Lord, he says, "being," "'existing," "subsisting" "in the form of God" - as it is variously rendered. . . . Paul is not telling us here, then, what Our Lord was once, but rather what He already was, or, better, what in His intrinsic nature He is; he is not describing a past mode of existence of Our Lord, before the action he is adducing as an example took place - although the mode of existence he describes was Our Lord's mode of existence before this action . . . . He is telling us who and what He is who did these things for us, that we may appreciate how great the things He did for us are.

Warfield regards our Lord’s role as messianic servant as key to Paul’s point of application being made to the Philippians. According to the Princetonian, Christ’s divine nature is not “was” or “will be,” but “is.”

So far is Paul from intimating, therefore, that Our Lord laid aside His Deity in entering upon His life on earth, that he rather asserts that He retained His Deity throughout His life on earth, and in the whole course of His humiliation, up to death itself, was consciously ever exercising self-abnegation, living a life which did not by nature belong to Him, which stood in fact in direct contradiction to the life which was naturally His. It is this underlying implication which determines the whole choice of the language in which Our Lord's earthly life is described. It is because it is kept in mind that He still was "in the form of God," that is, that He still had in possession all that body of characterizing qualities by which God is made God, for example, that He is said to have been made, not man, but "in the likeness of man," to have been found, not man, but "in fashion as a man"; and that the wonder of His servanthood and obedience, the mark of servanthood, is thought of as so great. Though He was truly man, He was much more than man; and Paul would not have his readers imagine that He had become merely man. In other words, Paul does not teach that Our Lord was once God but had become instead man; he teaches that though He was God, He had become also man.

Warfield’s final point in this section of his article is that the Lord and creator of all, became a servant by assuming a true human nature in his incarnation.

Our Lord assumed, then, according to Paul, not the mere state or condition or outward appearance of a servant, but the reality; He became an actual "servant" in the world. . . . The Lord of the world became a servant in the world; He whose right it was to rule took obedience as His life-characteristic. . . . [Paul] is speaking of one who, though really man, possessing all that makes a man a man, is yet, at the same time, infinitely more than a man, no less than God Himself, in possession of all that makes God God. Christ Jesus is in his view, therefore (as in the view of his readers, for he is not instructing his readers here as to the nature of Christ's person, but reminding them of certain elements in it for the purposes of his exhortation), both God and man, God who has "assumed" man into personal union with Himself, and has in this His assumed manhood lived out a human life on earth.

Lord willing, Season Five of the Blessed Hope Podcast will kick off on May 25, 2026. I’ve been hard at work and am excited to get going.

I invite you to give Season Five a listen. If you plan to do so, you have a homework assignment! Please read through the Book of Romans a couple of times, and listen to it read aloud at least once as we get started. Both Martin Luther and John Calvin thought Romans deserves to be read regularly, and even memorized—sound advice!

To help you dig deeper as Season Five gets rolling, I have prepared a Romans Resource page with information about those resources which will aid you in studying this remarkable letter and its contents. Select Resources for the Study of Romans. Perhaps, this will whet your whistle for Season Five? Tell a friend!

The Illusion of Living Forever

We live in an age of remarkable technological advancement. At the touch of a keystroke, the world is at our fingertips via the World Wide Web. When we launch men and women into space, we hardly even pay attention because it has now become so commonplace. We live in a country with more wealth and greater prosperity than any nation the earth has ever known. On average, we live longer than our forebears; we are taller, stronger, and medical science can cure much of what ails us. We have cracked the human genome, and advances in DNA research hold out great hope for curing disease and extending life. As Americans, we are proud, confident, self-sufficient, and beholden to no one.

We live at a time when fifty is the new forty, youth culture dominates, and we act as though we will live forever. Yet behind the facade of life in modern America is the stark reality found at the end of the fourth chapter of James. As James dares to remind us, when viewed from the perspective of eternity, our lives are nothing but a mist (a vapor, he calls it). We appear for only a short time, and then we quickly disappear. While some may take James’s assertion as an expression of the futility of life, nothing could be further from the truth. James is poking a very large hole in sinful human pride and continuing his exhortation that Christians must humble themselves before God. None of us will seek grace unless and until we see our need for grace. This is James’s point in the final verses of chapter 4. The surest way to be humbled is to consider the precarious nature of human life and to be reminded that God determines our future, not we ourselves.

The Certainty of Death

As we continue our exposition of the Book of James, we conclude our time in chapter 4. In this exposition, we will cover verses 13–17, although this passage is actually part of a larger section that runs all the way to James 5:11. A good case can be made for treating this entire section of James at one time, but the point James makes about the fleeting nature of human life in the final verses of chapter 4 is especially important, given the fact that some reading this have recently lost loved ones, reminding us once again of just how short life can be. While we do not like to talk about it, all of this forces us to face our own mortality and to realize that the sovereign God controls our future. More to the point, it is good to be reminded that we must live each day in light of eternity. That is what James is doing here. He is giving us the best possible reason to humble ourselves—in light of eternity, our lives are very short. The truth is that we do not control our destinies; God does.

Even though there is great temptation for us to allow our technological advances and material prosperity to hide the fact that we will not live forever, James reminds us of the stark reality that life can be very short and that God holds our destinies in the palm of His eternal hand. People who think they control their own destinies will have a very hard time humbling themselves or seeing their need to draw near to God. To use James’s terminology, people who think they control their own future will very easily become friends with the world. They are well satisfied with the wisdom of this age. These are people who like to hear, but they never quite get around to doing. Such people do not seek grace from God and remain enslaved to their sinful passions. They see no need to change anything. They have heard, professed, and become remarkably self-sufficient. What more do they think they need to do?

The Importance of Reflecting Upon the Meaning of Life

When people live with false attitudes about life and the reality of death, they are often jealous of others and seek their own way, even if that means leaving their footprints on the backs of others. Such people—despite their profession of faith in Christ—think nothing of causing quarrels or murdering others in their hearts. They have no interest whatsoever in reaping the harvest of righteousness that James mentions as one of the wonderful blessings the Lord is willing to grant His people. In fact, such people—those whom James calls “sinners,” “enemies of God,” and “adulterers”—even use the law of God as a self-righteous club against struggling sinners, all the while breaking the very same commandments they accuse others of not keeping. Christians must fight against our sinful passions. Doers of the Word will prove their faith in Christ through those good works performed because God has brought them forth through the Word and then planted that Word within them.

As we saw in the opening verses of this epistle, the churches of the Dispersion were facing all kinds of persecution and difficult trials. In the face of these difficult circumstances, members of these churches were discriminating against the poor while favoring the rich. James exhorts believers to tame their tongues, to seek wisdom from above, to resist the devil with the truth of the gospel, and to humble themselves before the Lord.

James must remind these struggling Christians that God has not called them to suffer these trials only to leave them on their own. If they draw near to God, He will draw near to them. If they resist the devil, he will flee from them. If they seek wisdom from God, He will give it to them without measure or limit. Of course, as we have seen, all of these things are found in Jesus Christ, who is the wisdom of God and in whom the grace of God is poured out upon us. All of this, James says, depends upon looking outside ourselves to the mercies of Christ. In light of this, James now reminds us why we must humble ourselves—life is short, and God controls our destinies. Clearly, this is the best reason we have to humble ourselves and renounce the kind of self-reliance that sees no need to draw near to God and receive grace.

Self-Reliance—Properly Understood

Before we go any further, it is important to qualify my comments about self-reliance. Of course, if we are able-bodied, Scripture directs us to work hard, to provide for ourselves and our families, and not to be dependent upon others. In this sense, self-reliance is a virtue and stands in sharp contrast to laziness and sloth. But the point James is making is that a virtue like self-reliance can easily become a vice. If and when we allow our sense of self-reliance to become an attitude grounded in independence from God, then we no longer think we need God’s help, nor do we thank Him for our daily bread as we pray in the Lord’s Prayer. Because we take care of ourselves, we forget about God.

As a Christian virtue, self-reliance means utilizing that which God has given us (health, jobs, vocations, personal gifts, etc.) in such a way that we acknowledge our dependence upon God while fulfilling our personal obligations. But a spirit of self-reliance can easily obscure our sense of dependence upon God. A self-reliant person will continually struggle to trust in and depend upon God’s gracious provision. The virtue becomes a vice when we forget that all we are and all we have come to us from the hand of a gracious God. When we become so self-reliant that we develop an attitude of independence from God, or when we become apathetic in acknowledging our need for His gracious provision, then we engage in the very conduct James challenges in the following verses.

Self-Sufficiency Does Not Eliminate Humility

With that in mind, let us dig into our text, James 4:13–17. At first glance, it is hard to connect this section at the end of James 4 with what James says in the previous verses. But the theme of the passage is simply a continuation of James’s prior exhortation that Christians humble themselves before God. Since James identifies an exaggerated sense of self-reliance as one of the chief obstacles to proper humility, in the section following this one (the opening verses of chapter 5), James returns to address the conduct of the rich—those who were relying upon their wealth to sustain them in troubled times. As James goes on to say, these are people who were neglecting to come to the aid of the poor, who, because of difficult times, were going without the essentials of life. Those who have much in the way of material goods and comfort are oftentimes insulated from the suffering of others. Those who have much often have a difficult time humbling themselves when it appears to them that they have the resources to control their own destinies.

The irony is that the issue James tackles in verses 13–17 regarding a self-sufficient independence associated with the wealthy merchants and landowners of his age applies to just about everybody in modern America. In these verses, James speaks of travel plans (typical of the merchants, traders, and landowners throughout Palestine), as well as striving to earn a profit, something also associated with merchants and landowners. Ironically, these same things are on the minds of virtually every modern American worker and family as we enter a period of economic uncertainty. While these concerns in James’s day could be directly associated with the more affluent (who will come under additional criticism in chapter 5), they are commonplace for us as we plan our lives, scurry here and there, and oftentimes become completely preoccupied with the business of life. Under such circumstances, we lose the biblical perspective on life—that it is short and controlled by God—and we act as self-sufficiently and independently from God as those whom James is writing to correct.

Our Destiny Is in the Lord's Hands

In verses 13-14, James pops the bubble of this kind of self-sufficiency. "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit'— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring." People who are overly busy and preoccupied with carrying out the plans they make never once stop to consider that God–not they–controls their futures and their eternal destinies. Despite all our best efforts to control our futures, not one of us truly knows what tomorrow will bring. Covid changed everything for a time about life in America. We were a different nation on September 10, 2001, than we were on September 12, 2001. John F. Kennedy had no idea, as he rode in his motorcade through Dallas on November 22, 1963, that he would never give his prepared speech at the Dallas Trade Mart, and that he was about to enter eternity. Little did Lyndon Johnson know that on the morning of November 22, that he would retire to bed that evening as the President of the United States, having endured the longest, most stressful day of his life, and now leading a nation in a time of national emergency and tragedy. I could go on, but you get the point. We may boast in our plans, see our activity as a mark of success and piety, and yet not one of us knows what will happen tomorrow. This is what it means to be a creature, bound to both time and space. The reality is that our knowledge is very limited.

In these verses, James reminds us of what we all know to be true but don't like to face. We make all kinds of plans for our lives, our businesses, our day-to-day routines, and our long-term futures. We must. But despite all the planning, not one of us can say what tomorrow will bring. The very thought of not knowing what will happen tomorrow creates a fair bit of anxiety. That is, until we consider something absolutely fundamental to the Christian faith. The same God who called us forth through His word, implanted that word within us, and has given us faith in Jesus Christ also knows what tomorrow holds, because He is the author of tomorrow. The same God who created us has numbered our days. We may not know what tomorrow will bring, but we certainly know who will bring tomorrow.

Thankfully, the Lord, Not We, Are in Control

As Jesus puts it in Matthew 6:24, “therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” Our Lord Jesus, who is wisdom incarnate, who has died for our sins, and who was raised for our justification, and who does know what the future holds for us, tells us not to be worried about it. Our Lord knows how we struggle to understand those things which are beyond our grasp. Jesus knows the fear in our hearts because of our uncertainty about tomorrow. And Jesus tells us not to worry. Why? Because he is the Lord of the future. His purposes for us and for our lives will be realized. That is why we are not to be anxious about the future.

Clearly then, James raises the subject of the future in the context of his exhortation back in verse 10 to “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.” Indeed, nothing can drive us to a proper humility before God than the simple reminder that while we may plan for tomorrow and then go about our business, we have no idea what the future will bring. We don’t even know what this afternoon will bring. That is why a little humility on our part is in order. We do not control the future, God does.

James now asks an even more pointed question. “What is your life?” While we may take comfort in the fact that the average life-span in America is about seventy-nine years of age, from the vantage point of eternity, seventy-nine years of age is not very long. In fact, as James goes on to say, a long life pales in comparison to eternity. “For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” Now, we need to be clear here. James is not in any sense saying that we are worthless or that life is pointless. We must understand what James say here in light of Psalm 139, that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. As James says earlier, we are created in God’s image and therefore have great value (3:9). But James is reminding us that the wages of sin is death, and while seventy-nine years seems like a long time to us, the reality is that seventy-nine years is not all that long–especially when viewed from God’s perspective.

Life Is Short in Light of Eternity

No doubt, James is echoing the words of Psalm 90:10, when the Psalmist says, “The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.” James sounds a bit like Job, when in the seventh chapter of Job, Job laments, “Remember that my life is a breath; my eye will never again see good. The eye of him who sees me will behold me no more; while your eyes are on me, I shall be gone. As the cloud fades and vanishes, so he who goes down to Sheol does not come up; he returns no more to his house, nor does his place know him anymore.” Life is short and will end. Eternity is a very long time.

If I may, this truth hit me in the face while I was doing research on my family history. I discovered that my great-grandfather, Albert Riddlesbarger, who died in 1932 was buried in Covina, CA. When I found his grave (he is buried next to his wife, and my great-grandmother, Paulina), I noticed that Albert had been buried for several years longer than he had lived. No one in my family remembered his name, who he was, or even where he had lived (Idaho and Kansas) before coming to California. I was greatly moved by the inscription on their headstone, “until he comes,” a reference to our Lord’s second advent. Later, I found a old church record which identified them as “Bert and Lina,” told how fun-loving they were, and how beloved they were in their Grace Brethren church, where Albert was the chorister. I am certain that no one had visited their grave for many years.

It hit me, that no one living on earth could recall knowing them. Other than me, no even cared that they ever lived. Yet, they are loved by God and in the presence of Christ “until he comes.” This is what James is pointing out to us when he says we are but a mist. We live for but a short time, and then we vanish soon to be forgotten. Yet, if we are Christ’s, when we die, we enter his presence, and he knows us and never forgets us. This is why we must humble ourselves and drawn near to God. But this is the very thing that the self-sufficient have so much trouble seeing. At some point, youth and self-reliance comes to an end. Death is the great un-doer of spirit of independence.

If the Lord Wills

Since life is short, James reminds us, “Instead you ought to say, `If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’” While God expects us to go about our business, and to make those day to day plans associated with living our lives, James now gives us that proper perspective which enables us to be self-reliant, yet without becoming independent from God and turning self-reliance into a vice. James reminds all of us that instead of boasting, we should get into the habit of acknowledging that everything we do depends upon the will and purposes of God. “If the Lord wills, we will do this or that.” While life itself is uncertain because we do not know what tomorrow holds, the fact of the matter is that what will happen tomorrow is a certainty because God has willed all things. Once again, James is drawing upon the words of Jesus, who told us in the Lord’s Prayer that this how we should pray, “thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven.” The idea that everything depends upon the will of God was certainly not foreign to James original audience, primarily composed of Jewish Christians.[1]

But as modern Americans, who pride ourselves on our technology and self-sufficiency, the idea that God wills everything strikes many as a threat to human freedom. This sounds like an old Victorian dogma that went out with the advent of radio. James invokes the doctrine of God’s providence–that God foreordains whatsoever comes to pass–as a means of humbling us, so that we seek to draw near to God so as to receive grace. It is important to take a moment and unpack the ramifications of James’s comment. God’s sovereignty is not a threat to our freedom, yet it is a reality which should bring a healthy dose of realism to those who live like tomorrow was something in our control.

To begin with, the fact that God is in control of the future is intended to bring us great comfort–not make us fearful or to paralyze us. That God (not us) is in control means that our future is not left to chance, nor to fate, nor to ourselves, or even to others. When we are told we are but a mist–here today and gone tomorrow–that declaration is intended to humble us. When we are told that God foreordains the future, that declaration reminds us that the future is in very good hands. We know this to be true by simply looking back at redemptive history, and observing how God has always kept his promises, and how he has always turned evil into good on behalf of his people. While we may not know what tomorrow holds, we do know that God has ordained it. So as we plan our lives, and go about our business, we proceed as we must, knowing that whatever happens, God has ordained it and will turn all evil to our good. This is why Christians need not live in fear, nor fear whatever the future might hold.

The Wisdom Of Our Fathers in the Faith

The Heidelberg Catechism speaks directly to this subject in questions 26-28 (Lord’s Day Nine and Ten).

Lord’s Day 9

Q 26. What do you believe when you say: “I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth?”

A. That the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who of nothing made heaven and earth with all that in them is, who likewise upholds, and governs the same by His eternal counsel and providence, is for the sake of Christ, His Son, my God and my Father, in whom I so trust as to have no doubt that He will provide me with all things necessary for body and soul; and further, that whatever evil He sends upon me in this troubled life, He will turn to my good; for He is able to do it, being Almighty God, and willing also, being a faithful Father

Lord’s Day 10

Q 27. What do you understand by the providence of God?

A. The almighty, everywhere-present power of God, whereby, as it were by His hand, He still upholds heaven and earth with all creatures, and so governs them that herbs and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, meat and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, indeed, all things come not by chance, but by His fatherly hand.

Q. 28. What does it profit us to know that God created, and by His providence upholds, all things?

A. That we may be patient in adversity, thankful in prosperity, and for what is future have good confidence in our faithful God and Father, that no creature shall separate us from His love, since all creatures are so in His hand, that without His will they cannot so much as move.

The fact that God wills the future should make us supremely confident about tomorrow, as we submit all our plans to God. “If the Lord wills,” then what we’ve planned will come to pass. If God has other plans for tomorrow than the ones we’ve made, then so be it, his will be done. Therefore, whenever we affirm, `If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that,” we are affirming the goodness of our heavenly father, who loves us, and has promised to provide us with all good things. When we affirm “if the Lord wills,” we are also renouncing that form of independent self-sufficiency to which we are so prone.

Human Arrogance, Again

As we come to verse 16, it is now clear that James is dealing with human pride throughout this entire section. “As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.” Because we are sinful and don’t like to submit our plans to the will of one greater than we are, we push God out of our lives (consciously or otherwise). Instead, we trust in our technology, or our self-sufficiency, and we forget that all good things come to us from the hand of a gracious and sovereign God. If we heed James’s reminder that we do not know what tomorrow holds, that we are but vapors who are here today and gone tomorrow, then we see the foolishness of arrogantly boasting about our plans as though we were sovereign. In fact, James even says it is a sin to boast in ourselves, our plans, our self-reliance. It is a sin, because the degree to which we trust in our own plans, is the degree to which we do not trust in God’s sovereign control of the future. It is not only sin, it is foolishness.

While the final verse in this section (verse 17) seems awkward and out of place here–“So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin”–the fact of the matter is that mentioning sins of omission fits very naturally here. Those who do not humble themselves, those who do not seek God, those who do not resist the devil, those who boast about tomorrow, have failed to do the right thing, and therefore have sinned. There is no excuse for a Christian not to humble themselves, especially in light of all that James has said here. There is no excuse for a Christian to fail to seek grace when we so desperately need more grace. There is no excuse for not resisting the lies and heresies of the devil. And because we are but vapors, there is no excuse for planning for tomorrow without submitting our plans unto God through our prayers, as Jesus instructs to do us in the Lord’s Prayer.

What Do We Say By Way of Application?

Beloved, not one of us knows what tomorrow holds. We do not know what the Lord has planned for tomorrow, for next week, for one year, for the rest of our lives. But we know that God has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass. And so let us heed James’s exhortation by submitting all of our plans and aspirations to the Lord with the simple prayer, “if the Lord wills.” This is in keeping with not only these words from James, but also with the prayer taught us by Jesus.

While we may not know what the Lord wills for the future, we know that it was God’s will for Jesus to die for all of our sins and then be raised up Lord of life. We know that it was God’s will to call us to faith in Christ, implant his word within us, and then bring forth those good works which are the evidence that God is accomplishing his purposes in our lives. So, when we pray “if the Lord wills” we pray that prayer with the confidence that God has already willed the best for us in the person of his Son. In Christ, God has given us all we will ever need despite the uncertainties of tomorrow.

In looking back upon what God has done for us in Christ, suddenly the fear and uncertainty of future vanishes in light of the blood and righteousness of Christ. This is why the prayer “if the Lord wills” is not prayer of despair and anxiety, but a prayer offered in the confidence of faith. It is a prayer framed by the cross of cross and the glories of the empty tomb. It is a prayer through which we humble ourselves, so as to receive grace, more grace. Amen.

Article 8: The Certainty of This Preservation

So it is not by their own merits or strength but by God’s undeserved mercy that they neither forfeit faith and grace totally nor remain in their downfalls to the end and are lost. With respect to themselves this not only easily could happen, but also undoubtedly would happen; but with respect to God it cannot possibly happen, since his plan cannot be changed, his promise cannot fail, the calling according to his purpose cannot be revoked, the merit of Christ as well as his interceding and preserving cannot be nullified, and the sealing of the Holy Spirit can neither be invalidated nor wiped out.

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Throughout the preceding articles under the fifth head of doctrine, the authors of the Canons are responding to what appears to be undeniable evidence that professing Christians can truly lose their current salvation. Arminians appeal to two lines of evidence. The first is the obvious fact that baptized and professing members of Christian churches can and do fall away. Such is the reality of church life. We all know people who make a profession of faith, are baptized, and appear to bear the genuine fruit of Christian conversion—attendance at worship and support of the church’s work through the giving of gifts and time (sweat equity).

But sometimes suddenly, and often more slowly, such people cease to do these things. They stop attending church or begin doing or believing things that contradict the Scriptures. These people refuse to heed the admonitions of church officers and attempt to justify their sinful actions, even when their thinking and conduct are openly contrary to the teaching of Scripture. There are as many reasons why this happens as there are people who turn their backs upon Christ and reject him and his church. Arminians, then and now, can point to such instances and argue that this is proof that current believers can fall into sin and be lost.

A second argument raised by the Arminians grows out of the preceding point. This is why, they say, the Scriptures so pointedly warn Christians to persevere to the end in order to be saved. Why else would the biblical authors repeatedly warn God’s people that such a thing is a real possibility?

As we have seen in articles one through seven under this fifth head of doctrine, the Canons do indeed acknowledge that professing Christians can fall into serious sins because of the weakness of the flesh, the temptations of the world, and the deception of Satan. Since the habits of sin and the corruption of human nature remain after regeneration, all Christians will feel the pull to act upon their sinful propensities (Galatians 5:17; Romans 7:14–25).

Furthermore, the Canons make the point that this happened to a number of biblical saints (most notably David and Peter) and that it was God’s kindness that led them to repentance and full restoration (Romans 2:4). Those among God’s elect who fall into such serious sin may indeed suffer the chastisement and fatherly discipline of God and may suffer temporal loss and hardship as a consequence of their actions. The biblical warnings are therefore to be taken seriously, and care must be taken not to let such serious sins bring ruin upon one’s life. The Canons address this point openly: “With respect to themselves this not only easily could happen, but also undoubtedly would happen.” But it does not, because “it is not by their own merits or strength but by God’s undeserved mercy that they neither forfeit faith and grace totally nor remain in their downfalls to the end and are lost.”

Therefore, the primary difference between the Reformed and Arminian views regarding the perseverance of the saints is that the Reformed understand the perseverance of the elect in light of the ongoing work of Jesus Christ in his prophetic, priestly, and kingly offices, along with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (who secures our full and complete redemption—Ephesians 1:13–14).

Ultimately, the elect persevere because Christ and the indwelling Spirit preserve them. This is the point being made here in article eight: God does not begin his work in us only so that we can provoke him not to continue it. The Canons get this right: “The merit of Christ as well as his interceding and preserving cannot be nullified, and the sealing of the Holy Spirit can neither be invalidated nor wiped out.”

Much of the biblical evidence for this has been cited in the previous articles, but several important texts should be mentioned here. In 1 John 2:1–2, we read, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” Clearly, Jesus is the advocate (as Paraclete—or defense attorney) for all those for whom he dies. We addressed this matter previously in the first refutation of errors under the second head of doctrine, but it should be repeated here:

Jesus is the advocate, or defense attorney, for all those for whom he dies. John clearly indicates that Jesus intercedes for those for whom he dies. If he dies for all without exception, he intercedes for all without exception. But consider the following dilemma raised by the Arminian notion of a conditional and provisory salvation: Can Jesus’s prayers go unanswered by the Father? Can Jesus pray for someone and not have the Father answer the prayer of his own dear Son? Indeed, let us not forget that John has already noted that our Lord does not pray for the world generically (John 17:9), but only for those given to him by the Father.

We see this point made again in Luke 22:31–32, when Jesus tells Peter, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” Even though Peter later denied Christ at his trial before the high priest, and the rooster crowed as Jesus said it would, Peter’s faith did not fail. Why? Jesus prayed for him. And lest we forget, it was Jesus who said, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out” (John 6:37).

Finally, in the so-called “golden chain of salvation” (Romans 8:28-30), Paul writes,

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

For those called according to God’s purpose (the elect) that chain is unbreakable. God will save all those chosen in Christ and indwelt by the Holy Spirit. The elect do certainly persevere because the one who died for them, also preserves them.

Here’s a brief summary of those biblical signs indicating that the end of the age and the Lord’s return is at hand.

Note: I discuss these signs in greater detail in my book, A Case for Amillennialism, and in an episode of the Blessed Hope Podcast entitled “Signs of the End.”

1. The gospel must be preached to the ends of the earth.

In Matthew 24:14 Jesus tells us, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” This is the one sign which indicates that Christ’s church can hasten the Lord’s return by taking the gospel to the ends of the earth.

2. The salvation of “all Israel.”

In Romans 11:25-26, Paul writes “lest you be wise in your own sight, I want you to understand this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved.” I present and defend my view that Paul is speaking here of large number of Jews becoming believers in Jesus in the days immediately before our Lord’s return. See my A Case for Amillennialism and this episode of the Blessed Hope Podcast, What Does the Future Hold for Israel? A Look at Romans 9-11.

3. The appearance of the Antichrist and a time of great apostasy.

In 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12, Paul speaks of two events which precede the Lord’s return—a time of great apostasy, which connected to the appearance of the Man of Sin (i.e., “the Antichrist”), the final eschatological enemy of the church. These have not yet occurred.

In 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12, Paul writes:

2:1 Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, 2 not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. 3 Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 4 who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. 5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? 6 And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, 10 and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, 12 in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

I understand Revelation 20:7-10 to be a parallel passage to 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12.

7 And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. 9 And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, 10 and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Just as Paul does in the passage above, in Revelation 20:1-10, John speaks of the binding of Satan (in the present age) as does Paul when he speaks of a restrainer currently in place although the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Both John and Paul speak of a release of Satan and increase in satanic power, deception, and horrific persecution, occurring immediately before the Lord’s return in judgment, when Satan and his henchmen are cast into the Lake of Fire.

4. The destruction of “Babylon the Great” — The City of Man (Revelation 18)

There are a number of references to Babylon found in the New Testament. In Matthew 1:11-12, 17, the city appears in the genealogy of Jesus, emphasizing the exile theme in the opening chapters of his Gospel. In 1 Peter 5:13, the city is mentioned again, and is almost certainly a reference to Rome, from which Mark’s gospel was likely written. Just as Babylon oppressed the Jewish exiles, so too Rome was persecuting Christians living in the city. Nero put both Peter and Paul to death during the so-called Neronian persecution. Even throughout the later chapters of Revelation (Revelation 14:8; 16:19; 17:5; and 18:2, 10, 21), the ancient city of Babylon is symbolic of first-century Rome.

Rome is pictured as “the notorious prostitute, who sits upon the many waters.” She was gorgeously arrayed like a queen, sitting on a scarlet beast with seven heads and ten horns. She was “drunk with the blood of the saints,” and on her forehead was written: “Babylon the great, mother of harlots and of earth’s abominations” 17:1–6). An angel helps to interpret the apocalyptic symbolism for John (Rev 17:1–18). The “many waters” symbolize nations and peoples. The “seven heads” are seven mountains, which most commentators view as representing the seven hills of Rome. Seven times Babylon is called “the great city” and is described as a dreadfully immoral center of wealth and commerce, ruling over the kings of the earth, and especially persecuting the saints of God. The wickedness personified in Babylon clearly symbolizes the historic manifestation of iniquity in first century Rome.

But Revelation 18 completes the picture. “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great!” (v. 2). God’s final judgment upon this new Babylon will be severe, repaying her “double for her deeds” (v. 6). The main reason for her destruction is her immorality and persecution of the saints (19:2). The kings and merchants of the earth will mourn her demise (18:9–19), but the pronouncement is made in order that the saints might rejoice and worship God (v. 20; 19:1–10).

Babylon is first century Rome, yet it also epitomizes the city of man across time, whether the city of Nebuchadnezzar (Babylon) or Caesar (Rome). These historical references are symbolic of the various “cities of man” which will rise up threaten the church throughout the inter-advental age. Hitler’s “thousand year Reich” was one of these. There have been many more, and perhaps more to come. But the city of man— “Babylon the Great” in all its varieties and iterations will fall before or on the day when the Lord returns.

What About the Tension Between Imminence and a Delay Regarding Christ’s Second Coming?

1. This tension is a characteristic of New Testament eschatology – the already/not yet.

2. A series of signs clearly precede the end (Matthew 24:32). “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near.

3. Yet, the Lord can return suddenly with great surprise (Matthew 24:37-44).

37 For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, 39 and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. 42 Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. 43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

4. The tension between signs preceding the end and suddenness of the Lord’s return is intentional.

This prevents date-setting. No one knows the date or the hour (Matthew 24:36)—“But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.”

This tension also prevents idleness. We must watch! (Matthew 24:42-44). “Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

Therefore, the complex of events associated with the end can come to pass very quickly. Birth pains can lead to delivery in short order–the final apostasy, the rise of an Antichrist figure, the conversion of the Jews, etc., can all come to pass very rapidly (in months, not years).

Geerhardus Vos is correct, when he writes that the best interpreter of some of these events is their fulfillment.[1]

God’s people will know it when we see it. The events of the end times are said to be sudden, cataclysmic, yet filled with the hope of our Lord’s promise to return to deliver his people and grant their their full inheritance in Jesus Christ. And this he will do.

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(1). Vos writes, [the prophecy of Antichrist] belongs among the many prophecies, whose best and final exegete will be the eschatological fulfillment, and in regard to which it behooves the saints to exercise a peculiar kind of eschatological patience. The idea of Antichrist in general and that of the apostasy in particular ought to warn us, although this may not have been the proximate purpose of Paul, not to take for granted an uninterrupted progress of the cause of Christ through all ages on toward the end. The making all things right and new in the world depend not on gradual amelioration but on the final interposition of God. Geerhardus Vos, The Pauline Eschatology (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1982), 133-135.

Gerhoh of Reichersberg (1093-1169) was a German reformist theologian nicknamed “scholasticus.” He composed a tract in 1162, on the Antichrist (De investigatione Anti-Christi libri III). In another treatise, The Fourth Watch of the Night (1167), Gerhoh used the imagery of the four watches to explain the course of Christian history. The first watch, he claimed, was the church during the days of persecution by the Romans—the “Bloody Antichrist.” The fourth watch was the age of the “Avaricious Antichrist,” a metaphor for the corruption and simony he encountered in the Roman church of his day.[1]

The contents of Gerhoh’s tract dealing with the age after the fall of Antichrist has been summarized by Brett Whalen in his 2010 book, Dominion of God: Christendom and Apocalypse in the Middle Ages.

“Just as he had done with Peter, however, Christ would stretch out his hand to the Apostolic See, rescuing the papacy before it was completely submerged. A newly spiritualized papacy would take up the fight against Antichrist, resuming and consummating the reform of the Church before the time of the end. This vision of a renewed and purified papacy anticipated one of the more popular apocalyptic ideas of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries: the hope for a future “angelic” pope, who would rid the Church of corruption and unify the people of the world under the Christian faith” (Whalen, 97).

Gerhoh’s interpretation of the papacy as the center of redemptive history anticipated an odd sort of postmillennial papal reign, which would begin after the defeat of the Antichrist. The “angelic pope” never came. And Gerhoh’s hopes for a world under Romanism would be spoiled by the appearance of a Czech Reformer, Jan Hus (1368-1415), followed nearly one hundred years later by Martin Luther (1483–1546).

Huss and Luther also wanted a renewed and purified papacy, just not the one expected by Gerhoh, which has still not progressed much beyond the one described in Gerhoh’s “fourth watch.” No papal utopia has yet dawned—only a Protestant Reformation and recovery of the gospel.

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[1] Bernard McGinn, Antichrist: Two Thousand Years of Human Fascination With Evil (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000), 122-124.

Who Said That?

I, or rather the Lord, beseech you as Christ's heralds to publish this everywhere and to persuade all people of whatever rank, foot-soldiers and knights, poor and rich, to carry aid promptly to those Christians and to destroy that vile race from the lands of our friends. I say this to those who are present, it meant also for those who are absent. Moreover, Christ commands it. "All who die by the way, whether by land or by sea, or in battle against the pagans, shall have immediate remission of sins. This I grant them through the power of God with which I am invested. O what a disgrace if such a despised and base race, which worships demons, should conquer a people which has the faith of omnipotent God and is made glorious with the name of Christ!

Please leave your guess in the comments section using the link below.  Please no google searches or cheating. Don’t ruin it for everyone else!

“Antichrist” as a Political Label

Calling your political foe the “Antichrist” has strayed so far from the biblical data that the practice has become flat-out ridiculous.

Once the political food fight—now a standard feature of countless podcasts and social media—began in earnest, it was necessary to find an unflattering label to slap on your opponent (or their tribe), so as to either marginalize them or tag them with an easily identifiable but obvious pejorative moniker.

Early labels were simply “left-wing,” or “right wing,” echoing the partisan labels based on where people sat in the French National Assembly during the Revolution. On the right, we heard the pejoratives used of Democrats and their supporters: “drive by media,” “libs,” and “environmentalist wackos.” Not to be outdone, the left managed to change the meaning of “conservative” (of which I am one, of the Reagan, limited government variety), into a term of derision. According to the liberal left, “conservatives” dislike minorities, women, reject science, are suspicious of progress, and renounce all forms of libertine sexual freedom and cultural expression. Conservatives are thought to be Bible-thumping backwater Christian fundamentalists (and almost always hypocrites) by the non-religious “others” who don’t know enough about Christianity to make any sort of accurate determination about what Christians actually believe and practice.

Then came Trump and MAGA. If you liked Trump, MAGA was doing the Lord’s work. If you didn’t like Trump, MAGA became something to decry as the identifier of all things detestable. The MAGA hat was now the ultimate declaration of one’s political fealty to Trump. To the left, wearing one was seen as an offensive insult needing to be ripped off the wearer’s head.

When the edginess of those labels wore off, both sides needed new “bad words” to define the other side. This whole process reminds me of the showdown between the two competing baseball teams in the beloved movie, The Sandlot. In a famous scene, the teams hurl insults at each other until one of them drops the bombshell, “you play ball like a girl.” There is no greater insult possible. There was nothing left to say. With the use of “Antichrist” as a political label, we have come to a similar dead-end.

The Democrats went from being called “liberals” to being labeled “woke” and haters of America. MAGA supporters were, in turn, called “racists” and “fascists.” The latter label was a feeble attempt to echo Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism (which critiques both Hitler and Lenin). In the eyes of many on the left, MAGA was framed as a resurgence of fascism—with the embarrassing twist that many who used the term could not clearly identify its origins or historical meaning. Trump was compared to Adolf Hitler by those with little knowledge of actual Nazi atrocities, beyond recognizing Hitler as one of the worst figures in recent history; and so his name was thrown at Trump as just another in a series of escalating bad words.

But like all other attempts to demonize your opponents, labels lose their edge over time with frequent use. If “racist” no longer created the desired shame, if “fascist” lost its punch, and since calling Trump “Hitler” fails the historical smell test, as MAGA began to fracture, a new “baddest of all” label was needed for its leader by those now disenchanted and who left the movement.

I don’t know who first dared to use the term “Antichrist” of Trump,[1] but once the sycophantic Tucker Carlson turned on the President, and the other pejoratives had lost their bite, it was only a matter of time before Carlson publicly identified Trump as “the Antichrist.” He wasn’t the first, he won’t be the last, but his affirmation has garnered the most publicity and caused the most outrage and consternation.

The Antichrist of Pop Culture and the Antichrist of Scripture

Let me be clear. These are not the same two individuals. The “Antichrist” of pop-culture is a figment of the imagination of filmmakers, novelists, and musicians, all of whom are looking for an occult angle to titillate and frighten consumers (so as to sell product, of course), while at the same time, making vague reference to the biblical figure about whom they know nothing about except that the designation “Antichrist” is found somewhere in the Bible.

Much of the pop culture “Antichrist” draws loosely upon widely-popular dispensational conceptions of the end-times, especially a supposed seven-year peace treaty with Israel, the cataclysmic Battle of Armageddon, and the nefarious use of AI technology to rule the world by preventing people from engaging in ordinary commerce (the latter associated with the Mark of the Beast). In his recent history of dispensationalism, Daniel Hummel makes an important distinction between a more scholarly variety of dispensationalism, and a “pop” version, devoted to end times punditry and speculation. While I am critical of the former, those who push the pop culture Antichrist (like Carlson’s slapping the label on Trump) co-opt the term from pop dispensational punditry and then further distort something already distorted.

There are three Antichrist threads in the New Testament, which, when considered together, make clear that any derivation of the “pop culture” Antichrist thrown about as a political label is a complete fiction conjured up by those who have likely never opened the pages of a New Testament nor have ever studied what Scripture actually says about our end-times foe.

It may come as a shock—if the advocates of the pop culture Antichrist even care at all—that the term “Antichrist” never appears in the Book of Revelation. It is only used in John’s epistles—and when it is used, it is in reference to first century heretics who possessed the spirit of Antichrist because they denied that Jesus was God in the flesh. In this vein, Jesus and the apostles repeatedly warn of false doctrine and false Christs. These kind of Antichrists have come and gone ever since. Therefore, I seriously doubt that Tucker Carlson means to call Trump a proto-Gnostic Christological heretic when he slaps the “Antichrist” label on him—although, from what we know of his understanding of Christian doctrine, Trump very likely has a deficient, if any, notion of biblical Christology.

Another “Antichrist” thread in the biblical data is the “Man of Sin,” to whom Paul the Apostle refers in 2 Thessalonians 2:1–12. This individual is a self-deifier who deceives the people of God through false signs and wonders, and whose appearance is tied to a time of great apostasy, followed by our Lord’s return at the end of the age. When Jesus returns, the dead are raised, all the inhabitants of the world are judged, and God ushers in a new heaven and a new earth. Although Christians debate whether the temple to which Paul refers is a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem (unlikely, in my opinion) or the church (more likely), this “Man of Sin” is presently being restrained. When the time comes for the Lord to lift that restraint, the people of God will face great persecution led by this individual, they will be subject to satanic deception, and have only this remaining hope: unless the Lord returns—and he will—God’s people would perish from the earth. So no, the political name-calling associated with the pop-culture Antichrist cannot even remotely be derived from Paul’s “Man of Sin.”

Then, there is the beast and false prophet of the Book of Revelation. In an obvious parody of the Trinity, the dragon (Satan) empowers the beast (the Roman state) and the false prophet (the successive Caesars and their henchmen) to wage war on the followers of Jesus. The crime committed by these Christians is to confess that “Jesus is Lord.” But that confession is at the same time a denial that Caesar is. The Roman Caesar (and those in his wake across time) hate the Christian confession of the Lordship of Christ and see it as a subversive threat to their tenuous power.

The obvious villain in John’s apocalypse is Nero, who put both Paul and Peter to death, and who may just be one of the most vile human beings who has ever lived—despite recent attempts by some historians to claim, “he wasn’t really that bad . . .” Although Nero met his end in 68 CE, his death is not the end of the story. In John’s vision, Nero’s evil presence becomes a picture for the people of God of the kind of rage-filled persecutors of the church who will arise throughout the inter-advental age, until a final Nero-like figure appears at the end of the age, only to be struck down by our Lord at his return and immediately cast into the Lake of Fire. When the Lord releases Satan from the abyss, this final Antichrist will appear. The situation will become so dire that no one then living could possibly entertain the thought that any American politician matches John’s description. This figure is evil incarnate, with no restraints until his final destruction, when, on bended knee, he too confesses that “Jesus is Lord.”

Therefore, the threat of a rising persecuting state (statism) and its leader (an Antichrist) is an ever-present concern for Christians—and one to which the label “Antichrist” might, in some cases, legitimately apply. But the biblical figure of the Antichrist (unlike the pop-culture version) is one who wages war against the people of God and succeeds in killing and persecuting many. Some Islamic groups (such as ISIS, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and Boko Haram) might fit that description, but the horrors wrought by this evil figure will occur on a much, much, larger scale. In that light, no American politician can, including the nearly eighty-year-old, term-limited, and fading Donald Trump.

So, enough already of the silly slapping of the pop-cultural “Antichrist” label on your political opponents. When you do so, you say far about yourself than you do about your opponent.

Resources on the Biblical Antichrist here at the Riddleblog

The Man of Sin (2006): The Biblical Doctrine of Antichrist: My 2006 book on the subject

A Case for Amillenialism: My 2013 book on the subject which includes biblical and historical data alluded to above.

Antichrist Speculation Is Nothing New: At the of the first millennium (850 CE) a French monk penned a treatise on the life and times of the Antichrist, which introduced or reaffirmed much of what Christians currently believe about our arch-foe.

Scoffers Will Come: You Can Bet on It: popular betting markets now include end times speculation

AI and Recent Antichrist Speculation: What do tech gurus think about AI and its ability to empower a pop culture Antichrist

Hitler as an Antichrist Figure: Hitler hated Christ, his church, and his people, He is an Antichrist figure.

666 and the Mark of the Beast: Why Antichrist is a present threat (not just future) to Christ’s church

The Binding of Satan: How can there be so much evil in the world of the devil is bound?

On the Staying Power of Dispensationalism: If dispensational pundits keep making predictions which don’t come to pass, why do people still follow them?

Louis Berkhof on the Historical Development of the Church's Doctrine of the Antichrist: Christians have thought about these things for a long time.

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[1] There are several books making a case that Barack Obama was the Antichrist. The author of one of them sent me a copy since he quotes me favorably. Uh . . . thanks, but no thanks . . . the author shall remain nameless.

Context, Context, and Context

When people cite verses from the Book of James, often times they cite them from our text–the middle portion of James chapter 4. Not only do we often hear the words of James 4:8, “draw near to God and he will draw near to you,” used as an evangelistic appeal (incorrectly, I might add), but many Christians are familiar with the verses “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6) and “resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). It is remarkable how often these verses are lifted from their context and used in ways in which James likely did not intend. Therefore, it is important to treat these verses in the overall context of James’ epistle, so as to understand them correctly, because these verses not only warn us of the danger of allying ourselves with the world, and judging others, but these same verses also direct us to seek the grace of God, which he has freely promised to give us in the person of his son.

We now come to James chapter 4. Since we have much ground to cover–even though there are only nine verses in our passage–I want to briefly put this section of James into context before we get started. With the Book of James context is everything. It is very important that we understand the background to this letter as we work through it. We also need to keep in mind the purpose for which this letter was written, as well as the date and background of the author, who in this case, is the brother of our Lord Jesus Christ, and who is writing to persecuted Jewish Christians scattered throughout Palestine and Syria.

Based upon the various exhortations we find in the Book of James, we can see some of the issues which were troubling the congregations to which he is writing. James recounts how professing Christians were discriminating against the poor and showing favoritism to the rich. James tells us why it is so important for us to tame our tongues (because our words can be so destructive), as well as explaining why we must seek wisdom from above (so that we do not rely upon the wisdom of this age). James has warned us of the dangers of worldliness, which is thinking and acting like those non-Christians who were persecuting the churches. In chapter 4, James addresses the question of Christian behavior in terms of considering our fundamental alliance with God and his saving purposes in Jesus Christ. If we are allied with God through faith in Christ, we cannot behave as though we were allied with those who hate the gospel.

The Fruit of Justifying Faith

As James has already established in chapters 1 and 2, good works are the fruit of justifying faith. While God has brought us forth from death to life through the preaching of the gospel (James 1:18), and then implanted that word within us (1:21), James has also pointed out how evil passions remain within every Christian even after they come to faith in Christ (4:1). Christians must continue to struggle against these passions and strive to obey the commandments of God (4:1 ff). While the law of God exposes our sins and demonstrates that we are law-breakers (2:10), once we trust in Jesus Christ (who has died for all our sins and whose own perfect law-keeping is credited to us through faith), the commandments of God reveal to us those things we must do, now that we are Christians (2:12). This is what James means when he exhorts us to be doers of the word, and not mere “hearers” only (1:22). Christians must strive to obey the commandments of God, and in doing so, we “do” those good works which are the proof that we have placed our trust in Christ. This is what James is getting at when he says that we are not justified by faith alone, but that our faith in Christ is completed by our good works.

A Sudden Change in Tone – You Adulterous People!

Keeping all of this in mind, we pick up with our text, James 4:4-12, where we find a number of familiar biblical passages. In a number of places earlier in this epistle, James has spoken of his readers and hearers as either “brothers” or even “dear” brothers. But suddenly in verse 4 of chapter 4, James abruptly speaks of his readers as “You adulterous people!” In speaking in such a direct and confrontational way, James is directing his largely Jewish audience back to one of the major sub-plots of redemptive-history. Throughout the Old Testament, YHWH is described as Israel’s husband. Take, for example, a passage such as Isaiah 54:5-6. “For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called. For the Lord has called you like a wife deserted and grieved in spirit, like a wife of youth when she is cast off, says your God.”

Since YHWH is Israel’s husband (in a spiritual sense, prefiguring the relationship that Jesus Christ has to his church which is his bride), and since the nation of Israel is YHWH’s wife, whenever Israel disobeys YHWH, or engages in those idolatrous practices typical of the pagans around them, the people of Israel are charged with engaging in spiritual adultery. This is a major theme in the writings of the prophets and comes to the fore in the prophecy of Hosea, in which Hosea is commanded to marry an unfaithful prostitute (Gomer), whose behavior serves as an illustration of Israel’s own spiritual condition at the time of the Babylonian Captivity.

During his messianic mission, Jesus uses this imagery and in several places in the gospels Jesus speaks of unbelieving Israel as an “adulterous” generation. In Matthew 12:39 we read, “But he answered [the scribes and pharisees], `An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.’” And then in Matthew 16:4, Jesus says the exact same thing in reference to the Sadducees and Pharisees. Upon hearing James read aloud, members of these churches would have understood James’s reference to “you adulterous people” to be a reference to all those who–despite their profession of faith in “the Lord of Glory”–were nevertheless cheating on YHWH by allying themselves with those persecuting believers. To use the language of James, those who were hearers of the word only are now accused of spiritual adultery just as the prophets had charged Israel.[1]

No doubt, James’s readers would certainly make the connection between the conduct James was condemning in the churches (discriminating against the poor, favoring the rich, speaking ill of each other, fighting, quarreling, and allowing their sinful passions to run unchecked) and the behavior of Israel which brought down the covenant curses upon the nation from YHWH. In using this imagery of spiritual adultery, James is making sure his readers understand the gravity of continuing on without heeding his warning to seek wisdom from above so as to stop behaving in such a sinful and self-centered manner. When God’s people leave him for the affections of another (the world), they are committing spiritual adultery. Such people risk coming under God’s covenant curse.

A Warning About Friendship With the World

James reinforces his point in the last two clauses of verse 4, when James connects his reference to “spiritual adultery” to the worldliness found throughout these congregations. “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” The serious charge (spiritual adultery) now comes into even sharper focus when we consider the role that friendship played in the ancient world. To be “friends” in our culture simply refers to a casual/informal relationship between people who have common interests. But to be friends in James’s day and age meant that the two parties (professing Christians and the non-Christians who were persecuting them) were ideologically connected. “Friends” share a deep and abiding unity. Someone who professes faith in Christ, but who is friends with the world (those who hate the gospel and persecute the church of Jesus) has made himself an enemy of God. Those who profess faith in Christ, but manifest the same kind of behavior as that shown by those persecuting the faithful, have made friends with the world, risk becoming enemies of God. They may find themselves coming under the covenant curses just as with Israel. Let me put it yet another way. Those who profess to have faith in Christ, cannot live like pagans without risking becoming an enemy of God.

Obviously, James is speaking rhetorically here. This is clear from the context. There is no evidence that anyone in these churches was actively working with those who were persecuting Christians. In fact, the evidence seems to show that the people whom James is calling spiritual adulterers, who risk becoming enemies of God, were professing Christians–people who were themselves suffering persecution from those outside the church. The issue is that these people were acting like those outside the church who hate the gospel. To be very specific, James is referring to those who were not struggling to tame their tongues, whose sinful passions went unchecked leading to jealousy and quarrels, and who were openly discriminating against the poor while favoring the rich. In other words, to remain a hearer only, to have faith but no works, to allow our sinful passions to go unchecked, is to ally ourselves with God’s enemies and engage in spiritual idolatry. Such people are “friends of the world.”

In the fundamentalist circles in which I was raised, worldliness was often defined in terms of humanly-devised blue laws, which changed from church to church, and which usually had very little to do with Scripture, specifically the Ten Commandments. According to many fundamentalists, “worldly” people smoked and drank, they went to movies, they had non-Christian friends, they had poor quiet-times, etc. But for James, worldliness is a much more comprehensive category than acting in a way which offends those who invent their own rules of conduct.

For James, a “worldly” person is someone who hears, but does not do. A worldly person is someone who does not tame their tongue, nor make any effort to control their sinful passions. A worldly person is someone who discriminates against the poor and who favors the rich. For James then, worldliness is a term used of someone who make no effort to conform their behavior to the law of God. Someone who professes faith in Christ, but then is characterized by jealousy, bitterness, lack of concern for the poor, self-interest, etc., is “worldly.” If true, this means that the struggle against worldliness is something in which we all must engage as part of the on-going process of sanctification. We cannot reduce worldliness to a list of “blue-laws” or to a label we throw at people whose conduct we don’t approve. No, the sinful passions within us all manifest themselves in the sins which James has described. And for James, those sinful passions, if left unchecked, result in “worldliness.”

God Is Jealous Regarding His People

Having invoked the image of YHWH as Israel’s husband, and having made the point that to behave as a non-Christian is to open the door to spiritual adultery and become a friend of the world, in verse 5 James now invokes the image of God’s righteous jealousy. “Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, `He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us?’” Here, we must be very careful not to understand jealousy in the sense of a sinful human passion, arising from our own insecurities and anger. When the word jealousy is applied to God, as it is here, we must understand the word in the sense that God demands complete and total allegiance from his people, those whom he has sovereignly brought forth through the preaching of the gospel, and in whom he has implanted his word, and who profess faith in Jesus Christ.[2] Having done all of this for his people, God desires our loyalty. In fact, he demands our loyalty. James can appeal to the entire Old Testament (i.e.,the graphe, “Scripture”) in support of his main argument that when our spirits (our person and orientation) turn away from him toward the world, his holy jealously is aroused.[3] Because God has called us forth from death unto life, he also calls us to be faithful to him and his revealed will. God is grieved when we turn away from his word, and make friends with those who oppose his gospel and his purposes. And we make friends with those who oppose him by engaging in that conduct which James has exhorted us to cease.

God Opposes the Proud But Give Grace to the Humble

Christians will strive not to commit spiritual adultery, and we will wage war against the passions of the flesh. But while we struggle against our sinful passions, James now gives struggling sinners a word of hope in verse 6. “But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, `God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’” Because God is jealous for our spiritual allegiance, he is willing to give us grace, indeed more grace. This is but another way of saying that in the gospel, God freely gives to us what he demands of us under the law. God has called us to “do”, not just “hear.” God calls us to control our sinful passions. God calls us to be faithful to him and not to become friends of the world. Because God calls us to do these things, he is always willing to give us more grace.

In fact, James cites from Proverbs 3:34 when he states God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. The proud are people who don’t think they need God’s grace. These are folk who think they are fine just as they are. These are people who hear James’s exhortations and then say to themselves, “that applies to so and so, but not to me . . .” God opposes such people. These are the folk who risk becoming God’s enemies. These are people who hear but do not do, and who see no reason to tame their tongues or control their sinful passions. The proud do think they need grace. But God opposes them.

Yet to the poor struggling sinner, who sees their need for grace and who act in true humility by seeking the grace of God, God will give them all the grace they need. God does not call us to “do” without giving us the grace which enables us to do. God does not call us to control our sinful passions and then leave us to our own devices. God gives grace to the humble. While James does not go into the specifics as to how God gives us grace, since James has already told us that God brings us forth through the word, it is not a stretch to conclude that God gives us grace through the preaching of the gospel, and through the administration of the sacraments (the sign and seal of what is promised in the gospel).

Submit to God and Resist the Devil

Having reminded the struggling sinner of God’s willingness to give us grace, James gives us a series of commands which flow out of James’s citation of Proverbs 3:34. Since God gives grace to the humble while opposing the proud, Christians are to humble themselves.[4] As James puts it in verse 7, “Submit yourselves therefore to God.” The logic of this is easy to follow. God gives grace to the humble. This grace is God’s means of enabling us to “do” the word. Therefore, we need to submit to God, so as to receive the grace we need to do what God requires of us. Submission, in this case, is an act of acknowledging God’s authority over us, along with a renewed commitment to accept the grace offered to us, with the goal of being more than a mere “hearer” of the word, but “a doer.”

The second clause of the verse is the familiar exhortation, “resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Grammatically, James is telling us that we submit to God’s authority, in part, when we resist the devil[5]. Practically speaking we are exhorted to resist the devil, who is the father of lies and the source of all heresy. Understand that the devil does not make us sin. Whenever you see the image of the devil whispering something in someone’s ear, while an angel whispers something else in the other ear, this completely misses the mark. We sin because we have sinful passions. We sin because we are sinners. We whisper evil thoughts in our own ears! The “devil made me do it” defense is not only unbiblical, but people who think this way are setting themselves up for a tragic fall. Since the devil is the author of all falsehoods about God (and is heresy anything else but a falsehood about God?) we must resist him with the truth (correct doctrine). When we resist the devil’s purposes with sound doctrine and biblical truth, Satan will flee. This is why we must know the truth, and need not fear the devil.

Yet many Christians confuse James’s counsel about resisting the devil with the struggle against sin and temptation. The Bible never exhorts us to resist temptation. In fact, throughout the New Testament we are repeatedly exhorted to pray that we be delivered from temptation–which is a plea that God not allow us to be tempted in the first place. The Bible also repeatedly exhorts us to flee from temptation. Why is this? As James has so clearly pointed out, because we have sinful passions (i.e., a sinful nature), we are weak and prone toward giving in to sin when we are tempted. So, given how weak we are (because we are sinful), we must pray that we not be tempted, and when we are tempted, we must flee. The Christian who attempts to resist temptation almost always gives in. But when confronted by the lies of the devil, we are clearly commanded to resist him, and he (hating the truth) will flee from us. We must be very careful to have the right remedy against sin (we flee from temptation), and the devil (we resist him).

Draw Near to God

In verse 8, we come to the familiar command, “draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” Often times this verse is used as an evangelistic appeal–as though non-Christians have the ability to draw near to God, so that God sees their good efforts and responds by drawing near to the non-Christian who has taken the necessary first step toward God. Again, the passage has nothing to do with evangelism, nor is James saying that non-Christians have the ability to approach God on their own terms. In context, James is telling Christians that just as God gives grace to the humble, so too, if Christians draw near to God (the verb here is used throughout the Old Testament when God’s people approach God in worship), he will draw near to them.[6] This passage is a word of comfort to Christians, not an evangelistic appeal.

Such language is also used throughout the Prophets when God calls Israel to repent and “return” to him. This can be seen in a passage such as Malachi 3:7. “From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, ‘How shall we return?’” This is much the way James speaks here. Christians who are struggling with their speech, their sinful passions, etc., need to draw near to God with the hope and expectation that God will draw near to them. This is covenant language and is directly tied to the preceding, God’s promise to give grace to the humble. Again, the basic point is that God calls us to “do” and will not leave us on our own. All he asks of us–those whom he has already brought forth through the word–is that we draw near to him so that we receive more grace.

“You Sinners!”

In light of the grace God freely gives us, and in light of God’s promise to draw near to us when we return to him, James now commands us, “cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” Having called his readers “adulterers” now he calls them “double-minded,” (literally “double-souled”), which is a reference to someone who is torn between conflicting allegiances. This flows out of James’s earlier assertion that those who make no effort to restrain the flesh are acting like friends of the world.

Using language which echoes Old Testament passages about the ceremonial preparations made by Israel’s priests, Christians (whom James calls “sinners”) are to cleanse their hands (external) and purify their hearts (internal). We find similar language in Psalm 24:3-4, which is a reference to Christ’s sinless obedience. “Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully.” James’s point is simply that those who draw near to God must do so with the same attitude as Israel’s priests–with reverence and awe. God welcomes us into his presence. We can approach him without fear. And yet we must do so with a humble spirit. We do this by realizing that the only way our hands can be clean and our hearts be pure is through the blood and righteousness of Christ.

In verses 9-10, James uses a lament taken from the prophets, before returning to the subject of humility by repeating his previous comments. “Mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.” Those who mourn and weep are those who have suffered God’s judgment (cf. Isaiah 15:2, Jeremiah 4:13). Those who do not repent and seek grace and wisdom from above, be warned. God will not allow this sinful behavior to go on with impunity. Believers must heed these warnings before it is too late. We must humble themselves, return to the Lord, and receive grace. We do so by remembering that in Christ our sins are forgiven and that in Christ alone we find the wisdom which God has graciously offered to us, his people.

Once again, James returns to the reason why we must tame our tongues. In verses 11-12 James tells the congregations,

Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

One of most tangible signs of sinful human nature is the ease with which we speak ill of others, and then self-righteously judge them using the same commandments which we ourselves cannot keep. Not only is this the very height of hypocrisy–who are we to judge anyone else?–because when we do so, we place ourselves above God’s law, rather than submitting to it. When we speak evil of our brothers and sisters, we have placed ourselves in a position of authority which belongs to God alone, and which we have no right to assume. We set ourselves up as judge, and then in self-righteousness condemn others. But, as James points out, this role belongs to God alone. The law is designed to expose our sins and to reveal to us what God expects of us now that we are Christians. The law was not given so that we can use it to make self-righteous pronouncements and judgments about others. Sinners must stop seeking to judge others, and instead humble ourselves before God, earnestly seeking that grace he so willingly and freely gives us in the person of Jesus Christ.

The Take Away . . .

As we read through this section of James we tend to be overwhelmed with the commands “to do” and the warnings about becoming an enemy of God. We are crushed by these words since all of us remain “friends of the world” to some degree. All of us are spiritual adulterers at heart. No one has avoided sinfully judged someone else using one of God’s commandments while the whole time we are breaking that command ourselves. We are all self-righteous hypocrites at heart. Human sin is not something which just goes away when we become Christians. James exposes our sin, he exhorts us to deal with it, he warns us of the seriousness of sin, and he tells us that we must cease from our sinful behavior.

Because James’s words here are so direct, we may miss the fact that this section of James is really all about grace. If only we humble ourselves, God gives us what we need–grace. In Jesus Christ—who always tamed his tongue, never spoke ill of others, who was zealous for God, and resisted the devil—our sins are forgiven, we are reckoned as righteous, and God enables us to fulfill what he has commanded of us. The whole point of this section of James is to remind us that God gives grace to sinners! So let us humble ourselves before God, and draw near to our Creator-Redeemer with proper reverence and awe. Let us never forget that in the person of Jesus Christ, God has given us wisdom and grace, and because of Christ’s death for us, and because his righteousness is imputed to us, we can freely enter God’s presence, where we are given everything we have ever needed. All we need do is humble ourselves, draw near to God, and there we will receive grace–indeed more grace!

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[1] Moo, The Letter of James, 186-187.

[2] Moo, The Letter of James, 188-190.

[3] Davids, The Epistle of James, 164.

[4] Moo, The Letter of James, 192.

[5] Davids, The Epistle of James, 165-166.

[6] Moo, The Letter of James, 193.

Article 7: Renewal to Repentance

For, in the first place, God preserves in those saints when they fall his imperishable seed from which they have been born again, lest it perish or be dislodged. Secondly, by his Word and Spirit he certainly and effectively renews them to repentance so that they have a heartfelt and godly sorrow for the sins they have committed; seek and obtain, through faith and with a contrite heart, forgiveness in the blood of the Mediator; experience again the grace of a reconciled God; through faith adore his mercies; and from then on more eagerly work out their own salvation with fear and trembling.

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Article Seven is, in many ways, a summation of what was set forth in the previous articles (four through six), where much of the biblical evidence regarding these questions was introduced. Serious sin (often called “backsliding”) is indeed an issue for some at various points in their Christian lives. As set out in these prior articles, Christians can and do fall into serious sin—usually through carelessness, temptation, or rebellion.

Many branches of the Christian family, especially the Arminians, at whom these “canons” are aimed, hold that genuine Christian believers can sever themselves from Christ, fall away, and be lost. Those who are Christ’s, but who commit the unpardonable sin, the sin which leads to death, or a final act of apostasy, will indeed suffer eternal loss just as any other unbeliever would.

The Reformed do not deny that Christians can fall into serious sin and suffer temporal loss, experience God’s fatherly discipline, and feel conviction of their sins through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. But the authors of the canons do not believe such people can suffer eternal loss. This is not because it is taught that the elect are strong enough, or so spiritually attuned, that they can hang on to the end. No, the Reformed doctrine of the “perseverance of the saints” grows out of a proper understanding of Jesus Christ’s work on behalf of those chosen by the Father, for whom the Son has died, and who have been called to faith and indwelt by the Holy Spirit. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit do not allow the elect to perish, and indeed the work of Jesus Christ as prophet, priest, and king is, in part, to preserve God’s chosen unto the end.

As the canons point out, the imperishable seed mentioned in 1 Peter 1:23, through which believers are born again, is exactly that—imperishable! The work of redemption is begun, sustained, and brought to fruition by the members of the Trinity through their joint (inseparable) actions. God will save all those whom he has chosen in Christ, Christ will save all those for whom he dies, and the Spirit will preserve all those whom he indwells (cf. Romans 8:28–30; Ephesians 1:13–14).

But the canons also address the pressing pastoral question associated with the doctrine of perseverance—where the theological rubber of this discussion meets the road, so to speak. How are those who stray or who fall into serious sin actually restored? The answer is simple—through the use of the ordinary means of grace, those things which should go on in church every Lord’s Day. This means attending to the Word preached and preparing to come to the Lord’s Table. This is where the Word and Spirit do their work of preserving God’s people unto the end in faith.

And what will those who seek to be restored discover when they engage the ordinary means of grace? The canons make this crystal clear. The Lord graciously “renews them to repentance so that they have a heartfelt and godly sorrow for the sins they have committed,” so that they “seek and obtain, through faith and with a contrite heart, forgiveness in the blood of the Mediator,” and because God is merciful, they will “experience again the grace of a reconciled God; through faith adore his mercies; and from then on more eagerly work out their own salvation with fear and trembling.”

Salvation, from beginning to end, is the work of a gracious God. Perseverance to the end is the work of that same gracious God.

I have long been interested in the doctrine of Antichrist, a fascinating subplot in redemptive history (see my book The Man of Sin ). If you know anything about me and the Riddleblog, you know that it is my contention that much of the Antichrist speculation of late strays very far afield from the biblical text. The reason for much of this speculative over-reaching is due to a preoccupation with geo-political events in the Middle East (especially the goings on in Israel and its neighbors) or fears about the potential destructive power of AI, should it fall into the hands of a maniacal end-times figure.

This Letter on Life and Times of the Antichrist was likely written in the mid–10th century (c. 950–954) by a Benedictine monk, Adso of Montier-en-Der, who was Abbot of the monastery of Montier-en-Der, in France. His work—a treatise written to Gerberga, the Saxon Queen of West Francia—is one of the most influential medieval treatments of apocalyptic expectation. Written in the style of the lives of the saints then popular (only in reverse since Antichrist is an “anti-saint”), Adso’s work was hugely popular, given the fact the critical edition of his treatise was based upon 171 manuscripts—demonstrating a wide distribution of copies. It did much to establish the future course of addressing the subject [1].

Adso lived during a time of increased eschatological speculation. The years he was active were those immediately prior to the end of the first millennium (1,000 CE)—a date which provoked all sorts of worries and apprehensions just as Y2K did in our own recent past.

Furthermore, the Roman church was struggling with corruption and bad-behavior among the highest ranks of the Papal court. The Holy Roman Empire was on its heels as well. Islam had pushed back the expanse of the Eastern part of the empire into fortified Byzantium. Regions which had long been “Christian” (e.g., Egypt, North Africa, the Levant, Asia Minor, and even most of Spain) had fallen to Islamic armies. There were also legions of war-like pagans beyond the Danube yet to be evangelized.

In the minds of those like Adso, these things were very likely harbingers of the return of Christ and the final judgment.

In explaining why he composed his treatise, Adso writes “to the most excellent queen, endowed with royal dignity, beloved of God and dear to all the saints, mother of monks and leader of holy women, my lady Queen Gerberga—Adso, the least of all your servants, wishes glory and everlasting peace.” He does so “to give you a certain account concerning Antichrist.”

His Letter addresses the following matters, many of which have been part and parcel of Antichrist speculation both before as well as since. I had heard much of this before in the evangelical circles of my youth, though more recent Antichrist speculation reflects American political tribalism and worries about the technological revolution.

Here are the main points from Adso’s letter to Queen Gerberga:

1). The Antichrist Has Historical Antecedents

This Antichrist, therefore, has many ministers of his wickedness, many of whom have already gone before in the world—such as Antiochus, Nero, and Domitian. Even now, in our own time, we know that there are many Antichrists. For whoever—whether layman, canon, or monk—lives contrary to justice, attacks the rule of his order, and blasphemes what is good, is an Antichrist and a minister of Satan.

2). He Will Be a Jew from the Tribe of Dan

Therefore, as our authorities say, Antichrist will be born from the people of the Jews, from the tribe of Dan, according to the prophecy which says: “Let Dan be a serpent in the way, a horned viper in the path.” For just as a serpent he will sit in the road and lie in the path, so that he may strike those who walk along the paths of justice, and kill them with the poison of his malice.

3. He Will Be human, Yet Indwelt by the Devil

And just as the Holy Spirit came into the womb of the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, overshadowed her with His power, and filled her with His divinity, so that she conceived of the Holy Spirit and what was born was divine and holy; so likewise the devil will descend into the mother of Antichrist, and will fill her entirely, surround her entirely, hold her entirely, and possess her wholly, within and without, so that—through the cooperation of a man with the devil—she will conceive, and what is born will be wholly wicked, wholly evil, wholly lost. Hence that man is called the son of perdition, because, as far as he is able, he will destroy the human race, and he himself will be destroyed at the end.

4). He Will Come from Babylon

Behold, you have heard how he will be born; hear also the place where he is to be born. For just as our Lord and Redeemer foresaw Bethlehem for Himself, that there He might assume humanity for us and deign to be born, so the devil knows a fitting place for that lost man who is called Antichrist, from which the root of all evils must spring—namely, the city of Babylon. For in this city, which was once renowned and glorious, a city of the Gentiles and the head of the kingdom of the Persians, Antichrist will be born. And in the cities of Bethsaida and Chorazin he is said to be nourished and to dwell—cities which the Lord reproaches in the Gospel, saying: “Woe to you, Bethsaida; woe to you, Chorazin.”

5). He Will Be Enabled By Occultists of All Manner

Antichrist will have magicians, sorcerers, diviners, and enchanters, who—being inspired by the devil—will nourish him and teach him in all iniquity, falsehood, and wicked arts. And evil spirits will be his leaders, his companions, and his inseparable associates. Then, coming to Jerusalem, he will slaughter by various torments all Christians whom he cannot convert to himself, and he will establish his seat in the holy temple. He will also restore the destroyed temple which Solomon built for God, rebuilding it to its former state; and he will circumcise himself and falsely claim to be the Son of Almighty God.

6). He Will Convert Kings and Princes

He will first convert kings and princes to himself, and then through them the other peoples. The places through which the Lord Jesus Christ walked he too will tread, and he will first destroy what the Lord had glorified; then he will send messengers and his own preachers throughout the whole world. His preaching and his power will extend from sea to sea, from the east to the west, from the north to the farthest regions.

7). He Will Perform False Signs and Wonders

He will also perform many signs, great and unheard‑of miracles. He will make fire come terribly from heaven; he will cause trees suddenly to blossom and to wither; he will cause the sea to be troubled and suddenly calmed; he will change natures into various forms; he will turn the courses of waters and their order; he will stir the air with many winds and disturbances; and he will perform other innumerable and astonishing wonders—even raising the dead in the sight of men—so that, if it were possible, even the elect may be led into error. For when even those who are perfect and elect of God see such great signs, they will hesitate whether he is the Christ who, according to the Scriptures, is to come at the end of the world, or not.

8). There Will Be a Period of Great Tribulation for Three and One-Half Years

Then there will be such tribulation as has never been upon the earth from the time when nations began to exist until that time. Then those who are in the field will flee to the mountains, saying: “Fall upon us,” and to the hills: “Cover us.” And whoever is upon the housetop will not come down into his house to take anything from it. Then every faithful Christian who is found will either deny God or—if he remains steadfast in the faith—will perish either by the sword, or by the fire of the furnace, or by serpents, or by beasts, or by any other kind of torment whatsoever. But this terrible and fearful tribulation will last three years and a half in the whole world. Then the days will be shortened for the sake of the elect. For unless the Lord had shortened the days, no flesh would have been saved.

9). He Appears Suddenly and Unexpectedly When Restraint Ceases (the Roman Empire Falls), and Then a Time Rebellion Occurs

Therefore Paul the Apostle says that Antichrist will not come into the world until the rebellion comes first—that is, until all the kingdoms have first departed from the Roman Empire, to which they had previously been subject. But this time has not yet come, because although we see the kingdom of the Romans destroyed in great part, nevertheless, as long as the kings of the Franks endure—who ought to hold the Roman Empire—the dignity of the Roman Empire will not wholly perish, because it will stand in its kings.

10). After His Destruction, the Lord Grants a Brief Respite (of Forty Days) Before the Final Judgment

You must also know that, after Antichrist has been killed, the day of judgment will not come immediately, nor will the Lord come at once to judgment. Rather, as we understand from the book of Daniel, the Lord will grant forty days to the elect, that they may do penance, because they were deceived by Antichrist. But after they have completed this penance, whatever span of time then follows until the Lord comes to judgment—no one knows; it remains in the disposition of God, who will judge the world at that hour which He appointed before the ages to be the time of judgment.

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The entire text of Adso’s treatise The Origin and Time of the Antichrist, has recently been translated by Jason Colavito. It makes for interesting reading,and is highly recommended.

[1] Bernard McGinn, Antichrist: Two Thousand Years of Human Fascination With Evil (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000), 100-103.

Dr. Scott Clark has written an historical, theological, pastoral, and devotional commentary on The Heidelberg Catechism. We have seen a fair bit of this material previewed on Scott’s Heidelblog over the years, but to have it assembled in a one volume commentary makes it an invaluable reference and accessible resource for anyone interested in the Reformed Confessions.

The need for a comprehensive and modern commentary on the beloved Heidelberg Catechism is obvious. There have been many previous efforts, to be sure, but Clark’s commentary treats the catechism in its historical context, and reflects Ursinus’s efforts to engage with long-standing and contemporary theological debate and conflict, while keeping the pastoral focus of the Catechism through consistently reminding us of our only comfort in life and in death (Q & A 1 of the Catechism).

This volume will long be the gold standard for comment upon the Catechism.

To read the updated resources on the Three Forms of Unity: click here:

The Pilgrim Journey

In many places, the Bible speaks of the Christian life as a pilgrimage. Paul describes the Christian life in terms of enduring this present evil age as we make our way to the glorious inheritance which is ours in the age to come (cf. Galatians 1:4, Ephesians 1:21). When our Lord Jesus calls and instructs his disciples, he uses images drawn from Israel’s Exodus from Egypt, in which Jesus promises that he will lead us from the bondage of the guilt and power of sin, into the promised land, which is our Sabbath rest in the presence of God. The Bible also tells us that we are citizens of two kingdoms–the city of man, and the heavenly kingdom. We live in the one, all the while we long for the other. There is something deep inside us that longs to reach our goal–the heavenly city and its temple.

As God’s people, we also long for God’s presence and favor. This is our hope and the realization of our heavenly citizenship. This gives meaning and purpose to our lives as we make our way towards our goal and final destination. The problem isn’t that we haven’t found what we are looking for–we have. The problem is that we won’t fully receive what we have found until we come to the end of our pilgrimage, and we are not there yet. This is why the biblical writers can depict the struggles of the Christian life as a pilgrim journey of sorts, as we make our way to that place for which we so eagerly long.

The Background to Psalm 84

Psalm 84 is attributed to the Sons of Korah. This Psalm is found in the third book of the Psalter and describes a pilgrimage to the city of Jerusalem to worship YHWH in his temple. Although the pilgrim motif takes many different forms in the Scriptures, one way it is depicted is in terms of a longing for fellowship with the living God. In the Old Testament we find this longing expressed by many of Israel’s prophets. During that period of redemptive history from the time of Israel’s release from captivity in Egypt to the forty years of wandering throughout the wilderness of the Sinai, the people of God long to enter the promised land of Canaan–for them a new Eden of sorts.

During the era of Joshua and the Judges, and then throughout the period of the united kingdom of Saul, David, and Solomon, God’s people desire to worship God in his temple, which they see as the visible sign of YHWH’s presence in the midst of his people. But once the kingdom is divided and Israel’s fortunes become bleak, God’s people find themselves longing for deliverance from the apostasy of the people, and from the wickedness of their religious leaders. The people of Israel long for deliverance from their enemies and for that time when Israel will once again live in peace, safety, and prosperity. It is not accidental that messianic prophecy flourishes during this time, as God’s people increasingly long for their promised Messiah.

A Major Shift in Perspective

In the New Testament, this same longing for God’s presence and his blessing takes a strikingly different form. With the coming of Jesus Christ, the biblical focus shifts away from the letter of the law written on two stone tablets, to the Holy Spirit. The focus also moves away from a building where God resides (the temple) to the church in which his Spirit indwells. Then too there is a shift away from fruitful vineyards, fields, and orchards (material blessing) toward heavenly blessings–the shift from dwelling in the promised land in peace and safety (Canaan), to union with Jesus of Nazareth (the true Israel). As Paul puts it in Galatians 4:4, now that the fullness of time has come, Jesus stepped out of the type and shadow of the Old Testament, fulfilling all of God’s promises. With the dawn of the messianic age, it is clear that Jesus is the true Israel and that we are his people. This is why in Matthew 12:6, Jesus says of himself, “I tell you, something greater than the temple is here.”

With the coming of Jesus (and the change in focus from anticipation to fulfillment), God draws near to us, his people. In Jesus Christ, God’s righteousness and salvation come to sinful men and women. Through faith we take hold of God’s promise that all of these blessings are now ours in Christ. Yet we also know that these blessings will not be fully realized until Jesus returns to raise the dead, judge the world, and make all things new. Until that great day dawns, we continue our pilgrimage to the promised land. This is why the Christian life and all of its struggles can be depicted as a journey, with those who are trusting in Christ as pilgrims making our journey to that good land which God has promised, and where at long last we will enter our rest. In light of this prominent biblical theme, a number of Reformed theologians have spoken of Christian theology in terms of a theology of pilgrims (theologia viatorum).[1] True indeed.

Longing for the presence and blessing of God is the theme of our two texts, Psalm 84 and Philippians 3. The author of Psalm 84 (one of the Sons of Korah) vividly describes how he longs to be in God’s temple because that is where God is present. As he contemplates these things, it brings him great joy and stirs a powerful longing within him to be in the presence of the Lord.

The Sons of Korah

The Sons of Korah have an interesting history. Originally, the Korahites were expert warriors, often assigned the task of guarding the campsites where God’s people resided as they moved throughout the wilderness of the Sinai desert. Later on, the Korahites assumed the more specialized duty of guarding the threshold of the tent of meeting. By the time of Solomon’s temple, the Sons of Korah–much like the sons of Asaph–were a guild of musicians who were devoted to the craft of composing sacred song.[2] In fact, twelve Psalms are attributed to these Sons of Korah.

The unknown author of the 84th Psalm writes like a homesick man. He is eager to return to that place for which his heart desires. He can’t wait to arrive at the place where YHWH is present. Three times in the Psalm, the author will speak of the blessedness–in fact, he pronounces a blessing upon his reader–of being near that place where God dwells in the midst of his people. The author’s entire focus in this Psalm is upon being in that place where he will enjoy the presence of the living God.

The First Stanza — the Distant Home

Psalm 84 is divided into three stanzas. In the first stanza–verses one through four–the author expresses his longing in terms of a journey to a distant home, as he describes the emotions of a man who is far away from that place where his true affections are directed.

In verse 1, the Psalmist describes the temple of God as “lovely,” or more literally as “dear or beloved.” “How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts!” The language used here is that typical of love poetry,[3] and recalls to mind prominent themes found in other Psalms of the Sons of Korah, namely Psalm 42:4, where we read, “these things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival.” The unknown author of this Psalm obviously delights in fulfilling his role as a musician in Solomon’s temple, the place where God dwells. His mind is full of memories of the grand processional as the people make their way to the temple, a time of great joy, and thanksgiving. He can’t wait to see the grand procession go up to the house of the Lord just one more time.

Contrast this with the greater light of the New Testament. The temple where God dwells is composed of living stones, his redeemed people, who are now described as the mystical body of Jesus Christ, which is his church. As Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians 3:16, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?” The Psalmist delights in God’s temple, for that is where God is present with his people. The New Testament equivalent of the Psalmist’s desire to be in the temple, is the delight we feel when we assemble together with our brothers and sisters to worship the Triune God, since together, we individually and collectively are Christ’s temple, the dwelling place of the blessed Holy Spirit.[4]

The Courts of the Lord

The very thought of the dwelling place of the Lord stirs the heart of the Psalmist. In verse 2 he writes, “My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.” But make no mistake about it, it is not the Psalmist’s attachment to a building–the stone and mortar–that stirs his soul. The living God is the object of his longing. The author longs for the temple courts because God himself is present there. In fact, the providential care that God has for his creatures–evident in the temple itself–stirs his heart all the more. “Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God.” By nesting in the eaves of the temple, the lowly sparrow enjoys the blessing of God’s presence, the very thing the Psalmist desires. A king who knows not YHWH, yet who lives in a luxurious palace, cannot begin to know the blessedness of the lowly sparrow who has built its nest in the eaves of the temple.

In verse 4 we come to the first of the three so-called beatitudes in the Psalm, “blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise!” In contrast to the wandering exile, who longs to be home but who cannot, the Psalmist pronounces a blessing upon those who, like the sparrow, reside where the living God resides, and who are continually near the presence of the LORD God. They are able to praise God in his temple whenever they wish. This is the very thing the exiled voice speaking in this Psalm longs to do, but cannot.

The Second Stanza — The Long Journey

In the second stanza of Psalm 84, verses 5-8, the author speaks of his longing in terms of a journey. The Psalmist is a man making a pilgrimage to his favorite place on earth. The second beatitude [blessing] opens the second stanza in verse 5, “blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.” Whether the Psalmist is speaking as one who actually must make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, or whether he is speaking of his own longing for the presence of God in the terms of a journey, is not clear. In fact, the pilgrimage spoken of here is based upon a word with a double-meaning. It may either refer to a raised highway used by the pilgrim to make his way to Jerusalem, or it may refer to the raised path used by those who are in the processional going up to the temple. It may even refer to the music “raised up to God” in worship.[5] But the key point is that the journey to God’s temple, whether literal or figurative, follows a well-known and frequently trodden path. For many for us, the Psalter (the Book of Psalms) itself is such a highway to God. God’s own word of praise shows us the way to that which we desire the most, the blessing and favor of our God.

As one makes the journey home, the landmarks they pass on the way remind them that the distance from home is decreasing with every step they take. “As they go through the Valley of Baca they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools.” The Valley of Baca was named for a shrub which thrives in arid places, and was often a landmark indicating a nearby spring. Even a barren place (a Valley of Baca) can be a place of refreshment, as God may choose to send autumn rains which bring the barren desert to life. The Hebrew word for “pool” has exactly the same consonants as the word for “blessings.” The idea is that the soul longs for God because the presence of God turns barren places into green valleys.[6] Just as rain renews creation, so too being in the presence of YHWH renews the Psalmist’s soul.

The nearer the pilgrim gets to home, the stronger he feels the pull. Instead of tiring and giving up, the eager pilgrim actually gathers strength at the very thought that he is nearing his destination. Says the Psalmist, “they go from strength to strength; each one appears before God in Zion.” The closer he gets to his goal, the faster the pilgrim’s pace. The pilgrim longs to be in Zion at the foot of God’s holy mountain. The very thought of drawing near to God’s temple leads him to cry out with the words of anticipation in verse 8, “O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob!” The pilgrim’s prayer will be heard and answered. He knows that God is faithful to his covenant promises, and that God delights in both the prayers, and the praises of his people.

The Third Stanza — Arrival

The third stanza, verses 9-12, indicates that the pilgrim has finally reached his destination. His desire to enter the presence of God is now fulfilled. He will hear again the praises offered to YHWH by his people. The Psalmist will join with the happy throng when the Lord bestows his favor on those who seek his presence.

Verse 9 is kind of a parenthesis of sorts–“behold our shield, O God; look on the face of your anointed!” Before the Psalmist continues on about the glories of the temple, his train of thought is interrupted as he makes a brief entreaty of sorts for the king, who is both the shield and anointed one of Israel. As a gesture of devotion to the king, the Psalmist asks that the same measure of his own pleasure found in being in God’s temple would indeed be upon God’s anointed one (the king) as well.

In verse 10, the Psalmist returns to his original train of thought and makes an amazing declaration: “a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.” This is the Old Testament equivalent of Paul’s assertion in Philippians 3, when the apostle declares “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” The one who knows the presence of God would much rather assume the lowliest post in God’s service (a doorkeeper), than feel at home in the company of the wicked. “Tents of wickedness” is a figure of speech connected to the wealth and social status of those merchants who traveled throughout Palestine. Better to be a doorkeeper in God’s house, than be an equal of wealthy pagans with their big tents, but who know not YHWH’s favor and blessing.

Even God’s doorkeepers receive a reward which far transcends anything the pagans can offer. As the Psalmist says in verse 11, “for the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.” God is both the sun (the source of life and joy), as well as a shield to his people (the source of protection, power and deliverance). Once in God’s presence, God bestows both favor and honor upon his people, the Old Testament equivalents of grace and glory in the New. Here, the word “favor” has the sense of God smiling upon his people as he takes delight in the delight that his people express for him,[7] while in the New Testament, honor and glory point toward the resurrection on the final day when the shame and stain of sin is forever removed. The point is that God bestows his blessings upon all of his people as they seek him, just as he will bestow the greater blessings found in Jesus Christ as we assemble to hear God’s word and bask in its glorious promises that our sins are forgiven, that we are covered with the perfect righteousness of Christ, and that we will dwell forever in the presence of the Lord.

In fact, says the Psalmist “no good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly,” a text which is echoed by Paul in Romans 8:32: “he who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” In fact, these words from the Psalmist, actually foreshadow the gospel. As we see in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God withholds no good thing from those who trust in him. Although he did not know the name of Jesus, nevertheless, the Psalmist knew this fact to be true. God will give every good thing to those who love and trust him.

But the Psalmist also says that these things come only to those whose walk is blameless, that is, those who walk “uprightly.”[8] What does the Psalmist mean by this language of walking in an upright manner? Is he saying that these blessings come only to those without sin? Absolutely! From the perspective of the Psalmist, this upright walk is characteristic of the Old Testament saint who, in faith, looks to God’s promise to provide for the forgiveness of sin and a righteousness which can withstand his holy presence. His whole heart believes what God has said, and he longs to see the promise become a reality. As he puts it verse 12, “O Lord of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you!”

From the perspective of the New Testament, the one who’s walk is blameless is none other than Jesus Christ. What the Psalmist could not yet see is that God bestows his honor and favor (grace and glory) upon us by reckoning our sins to Christ, and Christ’s righteousness to us, so that we are seen as though we had no sin, and as though we had kept the commandments perfectly. We are blameless (we walk “uprightly”) because Jesus Christ is without sin, and that through faith we are united to him and his “uprightness.” Jesus now becomes the object of our favor and desire, just as the Psalmist desires to arrive at the temple where YHWH is present with his people.

It is the knowledge that the Lord blesses the man who trusts in him which stirs the Psalmist’s heart, and why as he makes the long journey to the temple, and the closer he gets, the more his strength is renewed. This is why he longs to be in the temple, why he envies the lowly sparrow, and why the very thought of being in the presence of God stirs his heart to such great joy. Indeed, it is better to be a doorman in God’s dwelling and receive God’s favor, than have status and riches in the palace of the pagans.

Looking Back and Looking Ahead

In the New Testament that for which the author of Psalm 84 so desperately longed, takes a different direction. Jesus has come to Israel and shown that he is the true temple. Through faith in Jesus Christ, God bestows his grace and glory upon his people. The faithful no longer must seek God’s presence in a particular building, for we are God’s living temple. No longer must a pilgrim make the journey to Jerusalem on the raised path. For in Jesus Christ, the true temple of God, God is always present with us, and in him, God bestows grace and glory.

For the Psalmist, it was better to hold the lowest rank in God’s kingdom, than to have status among the pagans. He longs to be where God is found. But for Paul the situation is different. His longing for God’s favor and presence drives him not to think of the journey he must make to draw near to God, but rather how God is already near in Jesus Christ. While the Psalmist sees this in terms of it being better to be the doorkeeper in the temple, for Paul, the thought of Christ’s righteousness–the ultimate blessing of God’s favor and honor, moves him to renounce all confidence in his own accomplishments. Just listen to Paul’s words in Philippians 3:1-11, where the apostle writes:

Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you. Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh—though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

The Psalmist longs to be in the temple of God. The very thought of being in the presence of the Lord moves him to declare I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. Paul, on the other hand, longs to gain Christ and his righteousness so as to share in the fellowship of his sufferings. The thought of this moves Paul to say: I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Both men (the Psalmist and Paul) desire a similar thing. But Paul saw what the Psalmist couldn’t–this desire to be in the presence of the Lord is fulfilled in Jesus Christ who is present with us through his word and sacraments, every time we assemble.

The Application

Reader, let the very thought of Christ’s perfect and faultless righteousness satisfy our longing for God’s blessing and favor. Like the Psalmist and the apostle, let us delight in God’s presence in the person of Jesus Christ as he draws near to us in the power of the Holy Spirit through his word and sacraments. As the Psalmist was excited by the very thought of being in the presence of the Lord, he picks up his pace as he made his way though the Valley of Baca toward the object of his delight. Blessed are each one of us as we make our way each Lord’s day to assemble as temples of the living God, to hear yet again that word of God’s favor and pardon. Oh, for a day in your courts!

In the person of our Savior Jesus Christ, we have everything the Psalmist so eagerly desired. And yet, we remain pilgrims. As we make the journey on the Lord’s day because we are God’s living temple, may our strength be renewed and may we find the favor and honor of the Lord. We know what the Psalmist knew– “How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts!” And like Paul, we know that the same blessed Lord whose the presence the Psalmist desired above all else, is with us. Beloved, God has smiled upon us in Jesus Christ. He has given his own son for us, for the complete remission of all our sins. And so with our strength renewed and our hearts filled with gratitude, we continue our journey because we know that no good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly, through faith in Jesus Christ. Amen.

________________________________________

[1] Richard Muller, Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics, Vol 1 (Baker, 2003), 259.

[2] International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Vol. 3.51.

[3] Derek Kidner, Psalms 73-150, 303.

[4] Kidner, Psalms 73-150, 303.

[5] Kidner, Psalms 73-150, 304.

[6] Kidner, Psalms 73-150, 305.

[7] Kidner, Psalms 73-150, 306-307.

[8] Kidner, Psalms 73-150, 307.

As you may be aware from my previous posting of Warfield sermons, it was customary for the professors at Princeton Theological Seminary to preach a Lord’s Day afternoon sermon in the seminary’s chapel. On this occasion, Warfield chose Psalm 78:10 as his text. You can read the sermon in its entirety here. In it he addresses the wrath of God againt his enemies in light of the deliverance won for us by the Prince of Peace.

After discussing the origin of the Psalm (at a time of the destruction of one of Israel’s great foes—the Assyrian king Sennacherib), the Psalmist speaks in wonder at how YHWH’s enemies end up praising him as he makes his wrath and power known. Warfield says of the content of the Psalm . . .

It celebrates a great deliverance wrought by the power of God; a deliverance beyond all expectation, wrought by God alone. The essence of its representation is that Jehovah is a man of war, above all comparison great. When He enters the field, all the machinery of conflict stops. The lightning-like arrows which fly from the bow cease in their courses; the shield and the sword fall helpless to the ground; the stoutest-hearted with their chariots and horses drop into the inactivity of death. For Jehovah is terrible. None can stand before Him when His wrath begins to burn but a little.

In this we see YHWH’s great power in bringing all things—including the wrath of his enemies—to their appointed and providential ends. When Jehovah speaks he reveals his power over all things.

As the Psalmist contemplates the certain destruction that befalls all the foes of Israel, when Jehovah speaks, he rises from the particular to the general. He proclaims the praises of the eternal and universal providence of God, as it is illustrated in the great fact that even the most violent passions of men are under His control, and conduce only to the fulfilment of His ends. "Surely," he cries, "the wrath of man shall praise Thee, and the residue of wrath Thou wilt restrain," or "the residue of wrath wilt Thou gird upon Thee." The fundamental sense is that the ebullitions of the wrath of man, however violent and outbreaking they may be, are, nevertheless, like all else that occurs, under the complete control of God and are employed by Him as instruments for working out His ends. Like all else that comes to pass, then, they illustrate God's glory.

It is Paul who puts it succinctly in Romans 8:28, “for we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” But the apostle is saying nothing new—the Psalmist made the same point centuries earlier. As Warfield reminds his hearers,

It may be hard for us to understand or even to believe it—for our sight is dim and the range of our vision is narrow—but all things work together under God's governing hand for good. Even the things which in themselves are evil, in all their workings work together for good in this world of ours; for it is God's world after all, and He is the Governor of it, and He governs it for good, and that continually. John Calvin reminds us that though Satan may rage about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, yet he has a bit in his mouth and it is God who holds the reins. "Oh, Assyrian, the rod of My anger," cries Jehovah.

In fact, notes Warfield, the Assyrian acted willfully and in anger, not knowing that he was God’s instrument.

It was for his own ends—lust of conquest, delight in power—that the Assyrian on his part was doing it. He knew not that he was but the instrument in God's hands for working higher ends, and that when they were secured, the sword would drop from his inert fingers and he would himself fall on sleep. "Glorious art Thou and excellent," sings the Psalmist, "more than the mountains of prey: the stout-hearted are made a spoil, they have slept their sleep; and none of the men of might have found their hands. At thy rebuke, 0 God of Jacob, both chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep." In the midst of the turmoil of war, let us remember that war too is of God, and that it, too, will His hands work for good: that even the wrath of man shall be to Him for praise.

The very subject of God’s wrath is not to be trifled with, as the destruction of the Assyrian makes plain.

But there is more than even this in the Psalm for our learning, at least by implication. We read in it not only of the wrath of man, but also of the wrath of Jehovah; and the wrath of Jehovah is set over against the wrath of man as greater than the wrath of man—greater, more lasting, more prevailing. None can stand when the wrath of Jehovah only begins: when all other wrath is quenched the wrath of Jehovah abides—He girds Himself with it and is terrible to the kings of the earth. We must not then fall into the fancy that all wrath is evil, and that we must always and everywhere suppress it. There is a righteous anger, as well as an unrighteous. Else we would not read, "Be ye angry, and sin not." If to be angry were already sin, we could not be exhorted not to sin in our anger. God is angry. He is angry with the wicked every day. His wrath is revealed from heaven against all that work iniquity. If it were not so, He would not be a moral being: for every moral being must burn with hot indignation against all wrong perceived as such.

Yet, says Warfield, peace will come one day because the Lamb who exercises the wrath of God against fallen humanity is also the Prince of Peace and the very one who delivers is own from the guilt of our sin and the wrath to come. The coming of the righteousness of God as revealed in the gospel (Romans 1:16-17) will bring peace.

It is only when the world shall have been remade and there is no longer anything in it that can hurt or destroy that the lion and the lamb shall lie down together—because now the lion has ceased to be a lion. These things are to us an allegory. They mean that peace is the crowning blessing of earthly life and comes in the train of righteousness. Peace is, in the strictest sense, a by-product and is not to be had through direct effort. He works best for the world's peace who works for the world's righteousness. It is only when the world shall come to know the Lord and obey Him, that the peace of God can settle down upon it. We may cry, "Peace, peace," and there be no peace. But he who cries, "Righteousness, righteousness," will find that he has brought peace to the earth in precisely the measure in which he has brought righteousness. Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace, because He takes away sin; and you and I are workers for peace when we preach His Gospel, which is the Gospel of peace just because it is the Gospel of deliverance from sin. Sin means war, and where sin is, there will war be. Righteousness means peace, and there can never be peace where righteousness has not first been realized.

What Does It Mean to Be a “Doer?”

In the opening chapter of his epistle, James exhorts us to be “doers” of the word and not to remain mere hearers only. In the second chapter, James tells us that good works are the necessary fruit of a justifying faith. But that, of course, raises the question, “just what, exactly, does it mean to be a “doer of the word?” What kind of good works give evidence of a justifying faith?

In the third chapter of his epistle, James addresses a number of specific issues which were plaguing the churches to which he is writing. When James exhorts Christians to act in line with their profession of faith in Christ, James is actually informing his reader what it means to “do.” James also describes some of the good works which should stem from our faith in Christ. Doing the word means taming our tongues (controlling our speech), because our words can be so destructive. Doing the word also means seeking true wisdom from above, because this wisdom enables us to live in peace with one another, and will help us in the struggle to get our sinful natures under control. In doing these things, we demonstrate that we are not “mere” hearers of the word, and we will also manifest those good works which James says are the sign of saving faith.

Seeking Wisdom “from Above”

We move into the last part of chapter 3 and the opening verses of James chapter 4, where James directs his readers to the importance of seeking heavenly wisdom from above. In order to “do” we need to know what to do, as well as “how” to do it. As James will explain to his audience, when Christians live in light of God’s wisdom–and stop relying upon our own passions–we will live in such a way that our lives will be characterized by what James calls a “harvest of righteousness.” We will be at peace with our brothers and sisters, and God will help us to keep our sinful passions in check. But should we insist upon following our own sinful passions, our behavior will remain unchecked, and our churches will suffer the consequences–quarrels, disputes, and chaos.

As James spells out some of the specific issues facing the churches to which he is writing, the brother of our Lord identifies one of the chief culprits for their troubles as earthly ways of thinking and doing (worldliness). From the circumstances to which James alludes, apparently, the churches of the dispersion were facing great internal disorder and chaos, they were quarreling and fighting with each other, there was jealousy among the members, there was discrimination against the poor, and favoritism shown toward the rich–and this in addition to a number of other things catalogued by James. So, while James will identify jealousy, ambition, boasting, along with a number of other sinful human actions as stemming from that which is earthly (worldliness), it is not a stretch to see that all of the sinful behavior which James describes, and which Christians must strive to correct, stems from a reliance upon that which seems to be right to us (and therefore based upon our own wisdom), but which conflicts with the law of God (in which the wisdom of God is on display).

Justifying Faith Is a “Living Faith”

As James has explained in the first two chapters of this epistle, a Christian who trusts in Jesus Christ (what James describes as a “living” faith) will manifest that trust in the form of true religion, which is evident through the performance of the kind of good works. But Christians need to know just what, exactly, those good works are. This should not be a mystery to us, since obedience to the law of God is a good work. The Heidelberg Catechism (Q & A 91) defines a good work as something done in faith, which conforms to the commandment of God, and which is done for God’s glory. This is the broad application we are to draw from this epistle. We cannot claim to be Christians, and yet show no interest in obeying the commandments of God while allowing our sinful passions to go unchecked.

But in the historic context of this epistle–written in the mid 40's of the first century–James is making the case that the problems plaguing the churches of the dispersion stem from sinful behavior which is inconsistent with saving faith and true religion. We need to keep this point in mind as we proceed to work our way through the final three chapters of this epistle. James is not writing some sort of theological treatise on the relationship between regeneration, faith, and good works–although James has shown us that regeneration manifests itself in faith, which, in turn, produces good works as faith’s fruit. Instead, James is writing to persecuted, suffering Christians, who were then undergoing a very difficult period of trials.

In the midst of these difficult circumstances, some professing Christians were behaving in a manner which was completely inconsistent with their profession of faith in Christ. James now addresses this behavior and in doing so, describes the kinds of good works which spring from faith in Christ. To put it another way (as James does), many in these churches are like those who look at themselves in the mirror, but who had immediately forgotten what they look like. While these people were naming the name of Christ (even at the risk of being persecuted for doing so), nevertheless they were acting as though they had never heard any of the things Jesus had instructed them to do. They “profess” but they do not “do.”

Therefore, James is writing to the churches scattered throughout Palestine and Syria to address specific behavior. In doing so, James exhorts the members of these churches to be more than mere hearers of God’s word, but to be doers of that word. According to James, a doer is one who endeavors to obey the commandments of God, because they have already been justified by faith. This explains why James addresses the specific issues that he does, and this is why James is so direct in his exhortations to his audience. The people in these churches (to whom the epistle was addressed) would know exactly that to which James was referring–they were in the middle of it–and so James’s exhortation to act is a very appropriate response to their particular circumstances. This also helps us understand why it is when James connects good works to saving faith, that he addresses the specific issues that he does–how we treat rich and poor, the taming of the tongue, seeking divine wisdom from above, etc. These things were all issues in the churches of the dispersion.

Where Are the Wise?

With this context in mind, we now turn to our text, where James takes up the subject of divine wisdom, and explains how seeking such wisdom will bring peace to these churches. As he has done throughout his epistle, James begins by asking a rhetorical question. As we read in verse 3, “who is wise and understanding among you?” Since James is about to address the problem of jealousy and selfish behavior manifest in the lives of professing Christians, his question amounts to a challenge of sorts. James is asking those in the church who think they have wisdom, but who are still behaving in a sinful way, to step-up and explain just how it is–if they are so wise–that the behavior they now manifest is so destructive to the health of the churches.[1]

Should anyone accept James’s challenge, the following will no doubt apply. “By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.” As James sees it, if anyone truly possesses wisdom, it will be self-evident in that person’s conduct. In this case, a person’s good works will demonstrate that their conduct reflects the wisdom of God. Meekness, as spoken of here, should not to be confused with timidity or shyness. Meekness is a deep sense of humility before God. Meekness is simply the awareness that God is very, very great, and that we are very, very small.

Throughout the Old Testament wisdom is described as a gift from God. Jews were taught the importance of gaining divine wisdom from their earliest youth. As we read in Proverbs 2:3-10,

If you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his saints. Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path; for wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.

In fact, in chapter 8 of Proverbs, the author speaks of wisdom personified. As we see in the New Testament, this personification of wisdom is a reference to none other than Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 1:24). In Jesus, all the hidden treasures of God’s wisdom have been revealed. So, there can be no question that James has passages like this from Proverbs in mind as he exhorts his readers to seek wisdom from above. Those who are truly wise are meek. They humble themselves before God, and especially before the supreme revelation of God, the person of Jesus, that one in whom the wise should be boasting.

The Dangers of “Worldly Wisdom”

In verses 14-15, James changes gears a bit by describing the destructive nature of worldly wisdom. “But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.” If someone’s behavior is characterized by jealousy and selfishness, or if their heart is filled with bitterness, or they if are overly ambitious, then it is clear that they do not have the wisdom from above (which comes from God), no matter how wise they claim to be.

People who behave in such a way are oriented toward sin and self. Their reference point is not the will of God, but the interest of self–and the self which serves as their reference point is sinful. This manifests itself in the life of the church through a pattern of behavior in which someone tries to run their own agenda at the expense of others. Or, it can be seen when people are critical and insensitive toward others. Or when people seek to ensure that things are done their way. James’s word of exhortation is to stop boasting and denying the truth. If people are not willing to acknowledge they are sinful, they’ll never stop acting in sinful ways and they will never seek wisdom from God.

Very likely, this kind of jealousy was something especially fresh in the minds of James and of others in the Jerusalem church. We know this from an incident which occurred about ten years before James wrote this epistle, and which would have been common knowledge among those to whom James is writing. According to Acts 5, we read that after the apostles had performed a number of signs and wonders, many Jews–a sizable number of whom converted and were now members of the churches to which James was writing–were convicted of their sins, and many of those present became Christians. Soon people from the outlying areas were bringing the sick and suffering into Jerusalem for the apostles to heal them. The Sanhedrin thought they had put an end to this when they summarily put Jesus to death in 30 CE. But even after the death of Jesus, the miraculous was happening all over again.

In Acts 5:17-18, Luke tells us, “the high priest rose up, and all who were with him (that is, the party of the Sadducees), and filled with jealousy they arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison.” No doubt, James’s readers could recall the action of the high priest, who was so put off by the success of the apostles in gaining converts (jealousy) that he never even allowed himself to entertain the possibility that what they were doing might be the work of God. When James speaks of jealousy in the churches, his audience was very familiar with those who put their own interests above the purposes of God–like the high priest. There are some who see their own interests as far more important than the purposes of God.

Worldly Wisdom Is Often a Manifestation of Human Sinfulness

Based upon James’s rebuke, it is clear that people in the churches were appealing to their own wisdom to justify their actions, but in actuality they were manifesting a behavior which betrayed that this wasn’t divine wisdom at all, but merely human sinfulness. Not only does this behavior include jealousy and envy, bitterness and ambition, James also adds boasting and falsehood to the list. These things are hardly the manifestations of the humility and meekness before God, which is the fruit of true wisdom, and the manifestation of true religion. No, says James, these things are the manifestation of earthly, unspiritual, demonic behavior.

This behavior is not from above, it arises within the sinful human heart. The presence of these things is a manifestation of sinful passion, which should not characterize the behavior of people who have been brought forth by the word and in whom the word has been implanted. But the sinful actions James describes here have nothing whatsoever to do with the true religion which arises from obedience to God’s commandments. In fact, this kind of behavior reflects the behavior of the demons, which Jesus encountered in his messianic mission.[2]

The consequences of sinful human behavior are self-evident. Says James, “for where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.” Wherever jealousy and selfish ambition rear their ugly heads the consequence is chaos in the church. These things open the door to even greater levels of sinful behavior in the church. James’s comments are virtually identical to Paul’s words to the Corinthians, written about ten years later. In 1 Corinthians 14:33 Paul reminds the Christians in Corinth, “God is not a God of confusion but of peace,” before exhorting the Corinthians in verse 40, “but all things should be done decently and in order.” When heavenly wisdom is manifest, there is peace and order.

But when jealously and ambition arise, peace gives way to quarreling and order gives way to chaos. Like Paul, James is greatly concerned when individuals put their personal needs and preferences ahead of what is best for the whole. Such people think nothing of causing disruption, division, and they will readily upset the peace and harmony of the congregation because of self-interest. Perhaps nothing demonstrates the “folly” of the wisdom of this age, like dissension, divisions, factions, and schism.

On the contrary, when Christians seek heavenly wisdom there is a far different set of consequences. “But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.” Wisdom from above (wisdom from heaven) is a “God-given orientation that has profound practical effects on the way a person lives.”[3] Just as a living faith produces good works, so too, whether or not someone has drawn upon heavenly wisdom can be identified by their conduct. The list which James gives us here closely resembles Paul’s list of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23.[4] For Paul, the Spirit produces fruit, while for James, these things come from heavenly wisdom. Like Paul, James understands that these good things come from God.

Heavenly Wisdom and Its Fruits

The manifestation of heavenly wisdom can be seen in purity, which is a word meaning moral innocence and blamelessness. “Peaceable” is a reference to someone who loves peace and harmony within the church. “Gentle” refers to one who is considerate of the feelings of others, while “open to reason” refers to someone who carefully listens to others before making rash decisions. People who seek divine wisdom are full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. These are people who put others ahead of themselves, they care for their neighbors, and they manifest the behavior which Jesus describes in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5.[5]

The result of this behavior is not chaos or disorder. Rather, the result is what James describes in verse 18, as “a harvest of righteousness [which] is sown in peace by those who make peace.” When Christians don’t seek wisdom from above, their conduct reflects sinful human behavior. When Christians seek the wisdom from above (revealed in the law–the “law of liberty”–and supremely in the person of Jesus Christ), the result is “the harvest of righteousness.” All of the virtues James lists here flow out of the lives of those who have been brought forth by the word, who have the word planted within them, and who receive that word with humility. Those who “do” the word reflect the righteousness which they already have through faith in Christ. Those who produce the good works mentioned here, do so because their faith in Christ is a “living faith,” which produces the fruit of true religion. Instead of being characterized by the kind of behavior James has just described, those who seek heavenly wisdom are blessed to dwell in peace, where the peace-makers produce a harvest of righteousness which blesses everyone, and which is of great benefit to the entire body.

When Human Wisdom Prevails

Well, what happens when people don’t seek heavenly wisdom, and when human wisdom prevails? You certainly don’t have a harvest of righteousness and the peace which results. Instead you have quarreling and fighting. You have the very conduct James is writing to correct. In the first verse of chapter four, you can almost see James throwing his hands in the air and lamenting “what causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?” The answer James gives is virtually identical to a statement made by Jesus. In Matthew 15:19, Jesus told the Pharisees, “for out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.”

Paul has not only spoken of the fruit of the Spirit, but in Galatians 5:17-21, Paul gives us a catalogue of what he calls “fruit of the flesh.” Says Paul,

for the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

The theological point James makes here, and which Jesus and Paul make elsewhere, is that even as Christians, the sinful nature remains after we are justified, so that the Christian life (the “doing” and “good works” now being discussed by James) takes place in terms of a struggle with the evil that remains within our hearts. In other words, the new nature brought forth by God through the word, desires to see a harvest of righteousness. But the evil which remains within us resists such righteousness, and when left unchecked produces the quarreling and fighting James now describes.

Mere Human Wisdom Can Be Destructive

James goes on to describe how our sinful passions–if left unchecked–create havoc in the church. According to James, “You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.” The evil in our hearts is so pervasive, that when we desire something and do not get it, we kill our neighbor. While some take James to mean this in a more literal sense–arguing that many in this congregation were zealots, actively working to overthrow the Roman military occupation of Palestine–I think it is clear that James is speaking rhetorically here. We don’t get what we want, so we curse and murder others in our hearts through hatred (cf. James 3:9). This is certainly the root of violence against others and would be the cause should we ever get so angry as to take another’s life.

Next James mentions how we covet, but do not obtain, and so we quarrel and fight. Again the root of all strife within the church is the sin which resides in our own hearts. When someone gets something we want, and we miss out, then we seek our own way. Because we are sinful, we quickly turn on our brothers and sisters because we think they’ve wronged us, or done us harm. When we need things, we do not ask God, but instead seek them through our own sinful devices. Even worse, on those occasions when we ask and we do not receive, the reason is because we are asking God based upon selfish motives and ambitions. The Lord withholds these things from us, because he knows we’ll only use what he gives us for our own pleasure, and not for the good of those around us.

The bottom line is that James gives us a very graphic contrast between what happens when we seek the wisdom of God (a harvest of righteousness and peace) and what happens when we rely upon human wisdom (fighting and quarreling). This is why we must seek the wisdom from above, so that we live in peace with one another, and so that our sinful appetites are restrained by the grace of God. Make no mistake about it, sin remains in the heart of every Christian. And if we are not seeking heavenly wisdom to aid our struggle against our sinful passions, we will bring about the deplorable conditions which James is writing to correct. Our sinful passions will be self-destructive and cause chaos in the church.

Heavenly Wisdom Is Found Only in Christ

Where do we find that heavenly wisdom from above? And how do we apply it to our lives?

The good news is that God has not hidden his wisdom from us. He has revealed it in two places. The first place where God’s wisdom is revealed is in the law, which is a revelation of God’s will as well as a reflection of his holy and righteous character. James has already told us how the law exposes us to be law-breakers. Sin but a single time, and we are as guilty before God as though we had broken all of God’s commandments. And yet, James has also described the law as a “law of liberty.” How can that which condemns us, be said to liberate us?

In order to answer that question, we must discuss the second place where the wisdom of God is revealed to us, and that is in the person and work of Jesus Christ, who is nothing less than wisdom incarnate. In his messianic mission Jesus obeyed the law of God perfectly, as well as dying for all of those times we have broken God’s commandments. When we come to faith in Christ we are justified. God declares us to be “not guilty” because Christ’s death pays for our sins, and his perfect law-keeping is reckoned to us through faith. Because we are now “in Christ” and united to him by the Holy Spirit, we have been buried with him and raised to newness of life (of which baptism is the sign and the seal). This means the power which sin once held over us is broken. And since the guilt and power of sin is broken, that same law which proved that we are lawbreakers, now is our guide to being a “doer.” And when we obey those commandments, we manifest those very same good works which James says are the fruit of justification.

And so, when we seek wisdom from above, we must start by looking outside ourselves to God’s revealed will (in the law), and to a gracious Savior who has died for all of our sins, and who has set us free to serve him, as well as our neighbor. We seek the wisdom from God in the commandments of the law, and when we do so through the eyes of faith, we inevitably find that wisdom from God once we realize that Jesus Christ perfectly obeyed those commandments, and that his death and resurrection sets us free to fight against our sinful passions. The wisdom from above is ultimately found in the person and work of Jesus Christ, in whom we find all the riches of heaven, all the wisdom God has promised to give us, and that one who has set us free from our sinful passions so that we might “do” what we “hear,” and so that we might produce those good works which are the fruit of saving faith.

For when we seek the wisdom from above, and find it in the person of Jesus, there we will enjoy a harvest of righteousness and live in peace.

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[1] Moo, The Letter of James, 168-169.

[2] See the discussion in Moo, The Letter of James, 173, as to why this is a reference not to demon possession, but to demonic behavior, which is now imitated.

[3] Moo, The Letter of James, 174.

[4] Ralph P. Martin, James: Word Biblical Commentary, 48 (Waco: Word Books, 1988), 133.

[5] Discussions of these terms can be found in: Moo, The Letter of James, 174-177; Martin, James, 133-135; Davids, The Epistle of James, 154-155.

Article 6: God’s Saving Intervention

For God, who is rich in mercy, according to his unchangeable purpose of election does not take his Holy Spirit from his own completely, even when they fall grievously. Neither does he let them fall down so far that they forfeit the grace of adoption and the state of justification, or commit the sin which leads to death (the sin against the Holy Spirit), and plunge themselves, entirely forsaken by him, into eternal ruin.

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Having expressed the reality and serious consequences of members of the elect–those chosen by God, saved by Christ, and called to faith by the Holy Spirit–falling into careless and deep sin, the Canons move on to address the reason why none of the elect will fall so far as to be lost. We persevere to the end and avoid eternal ruin because God preserves us in faith until the end of our lives.

Many of us are familiar with the Robinson hymn “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” and the haunting line which opens the third stanza: “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it; Prone to leave the God I love.” That is the situation addressed in articles four and five under the Fifth Head of Doctrine. But the next line in that hymn, “Take my heart, oh, take and seal it with Thy Spirit from above,” is what is being addressed in Article Six.

Because we remain sinners with a sinful nature and the habitus (our established habits) of sin lives on even after conversion, there will be times (sometimes subconscious, or impulsive, and certainly not well thought-out) when we approach a cliff; a big decision, a change in our life’s direction, and so on, which, once made, will have catastrophic consequences for our souls and our Christian faith. But something stops us at the last minute from taking that “step too far.” The hymn writer speaks of this as “the sealing of the Spirit from above.” The Canons put it this way: nor does God “take his Holy Spirit from his own completely, even when they fall grievously. Neither does he let them fall down so far that they forfeit the grace of adoption and the state of justification.” The good shepherd will not allow even one of his sheep to be lost, no matter how far they wonder from the flock (John 6:39; 10:28).

The Arminian view that God’s grace enables sinners to choose if they will (or not) to come to Christ leads to the conclusion that if sinful people retain the freedom to decide to follow Jesus, then they can use the same freedom to walk away from the Savior and ultimately be lost. The Reformed view expressed throughout the Canons is (as we have seen), that God gives new life to those whom he has chosen from all eternity, sends Christ to save them, and the Father and Son send the Holy Spirit to call the elect to faith, indwell them, sealing them, and ensuring their final resurrection from the dead (Ephesians 1:13-14). God begins, continues, and completes his work in the life of his elect. Paul is unmistakably clear about this (Romans 8:28-30).

The final line in article six refers to “the sin which leads to death” (mentioned in 1 John 5:16). John does not identify this sin. There is much debate about what this means. Some take it to be a reference to the unforgivable sin, the “blasphemy of the Holy Spirit” (cf. Matthew 12:22-32), while others take John to mean a persistent and perpetual hostility to the truth of the gospel. I take it to be the latter, since Jesus’s definition seems to identify blasphemy of the Holy Spirit as something limited to eye-witnesses to his messianic mission.

In any case, the authors of the canons raise the matter to assure God’s people that since they are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, they will not, and indeed cannot commit such a sin. Robinson got it right . . .

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it; Prone to leave the God I love.

Take my heart, oh, take and seal it with Thy Spirit from above

Note: Originally published on June 12, 2022 and revised for publication here

The Binding of Satan — Background and Introduction to the Controversy

In Revelation 20:1-3, John is given a remarkable vision:

“Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. 2 And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, 3 and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while.” In verse 7, John adds, “and when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison.”

The binding of Satan as depicted in this passage raises several obvious questions, especially in light of the on-going debate between amillennarians and premillennarians about the nature and timing of the millennial age. This is the only biblical text which specifically mentions a thousand year period of time in which Satan’s power and activity are curtailed during a millennial age (whether present, or future). Satan is said to be “bound” for the duration. The two most obvious questions raised by John’s vision are, “what does it mean for Satan to be bound in such a manner?” and “are the thousand years a present or a future period of time?” Amillennarians and premillennarians take quite different approaches to this passage and offer conflicting answers to these questions.

Amillennarians believe that the binding of Satan is but another way of speaking of Jesus’s victory over the devil during our Lord’s messianic mission. The thousand years are not a literal period of time, but refer to the entire age between Christ’s first and second coming (the inter-advental period). If true, the binding of Satan begins with our Lord’s death and resurrection, continues throughout the present age, and ends with the release of Satan from the abyss (abussos—the place of the dead, cf. Romans 10:7) shortly before Jesus returns at the end of the age when Antichrist is revealed during a time of final apostasy (cf. 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12). This brief apostasy is followed by the final consummation when Jesus returns (the second Advent). His return includes three concomitant events: 1). The general resurrection (1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11; 1 Corinthians 15:50-57), 2). The final judgment (Matthew 25:31-46; Revelation 20:4-6, 11-15), and 3). The ushering in of a new heavens and earth (2 Peter 3:4).

Premillennarians, however, contend that the thousand years are a literal period of time commencing after Christ’s second advent, who then establishes his physical rule over the earth in a millennial kingdom (Revelation 20:1-7). During this time, Satan is bound. The thousand years end with Satan’s release from his imprisonment so as to lead the nations in a final revolt against Jesus’s rule, immediately before the final judgment at the end of the millennial age (Revelation 20:7-10).

Why Premillennial Objections to the Amillennial View of the Binding of Satan Actually Backfire

The premillennial objection to the amillennial view is a simple and obvious one. How can there be evil on the earth if Satan is bound? This objection is plausible if two very untenable assumptions are in place. The first untenable assumption is that supposedly there are people on the earth in natural bodies during a future millennial age (after Jesus returns), who comprise the nations mentioned in Revelation 20:8. On premillennial assumptions, these are the people who revolt against Christ once unbound, and who are destroyed at the end of the millennial age at the time of final judgment. But the false assumption here is how can there be people on the earth after Jesus returns to raise the dead, judge the world, and usher in a new heaven and earth as made clear in the passages above? Who makes it through the final judgment and goes on to repopulate the earth, only to be deceived by Satan after the Second Advent? This is a biblical impossibility, especially in light of our Lord’s words in Luke 24:34-36. “And Jesus said to them, `The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.’” There can be no people in unresurrected bodes on the earth to revolt against Christ! Nor is Satan still around to be released and deceive them—his end (the Lake of Fire) has already come at the Lord’s return (Romans 16:20; Revelation 20:10).

The second untenable assumption is that evil remains on the earth even after our Lord’s return when the consummation of all things takes place (see the texts cited above) and time (this present evil age) gives way to eternity (the age to come). It makes far more sense that Revelation 20—speaking of martyrdom as it does, and ending in an apostasy and a revolt against Jesus while he rules the nations—is much more likely to be a description of the end of this present evil age, and not a depiction of some sort of a “second Fall” of redeemed and unredeemed people supposedly on this present earth after Christ’s return, post resurrection, post-judgment, and post cosmic renewal. This is highly problematic and does great injustice to the flow and progress of redemptive history.

I address the serious problems with the premillennial understanding of redemptive history and a future millennial age in some detail here: Evil in the Millennial Age? A Huge Problem for Premillennarians and in the Blessed Hope Podcast here: “This Age and the Age to Come: The Implausibility of Premillennialism.”

To summarize, amillennarians understand the binding of Satan to be a present reality, while premillennarians see this scene as an entirely future event. In what follows, I will consider and evaluate the biblical background to John’s vision and then respond to the premillennial challenge, “when and how is Satan is bound?” And “why is there so much evil in the world if he is?” These are two important questions which merit response.

The Redemptive Historical Background to John’s Vision

There is significant biblical background which provides the context to help us understand what John sees, and which ought to be considered before we turn to the details of the vision given John as recorded in Revelation 20:1-3, 7. The scene depicted in Revelation 20 occurs in heaven where the thrones are (cf. 2 Thessalonians 2:4; Revelation 2:4).[1] This actually makes much sense in light of Old Testament imagery and events, especially when these are interpreted in light of the dawn of the messianic age in which Jesus triumphs over the devil and his legions. Since the context behind John’s vision is important and often overlooked in this debate, I will endeavor to trace out these images and events to aid us in our interpretation of the binding of Satan in Revelation 20. There are three categories of biblical events which give us considerable aid in understanding and interpreting John’s vision.

First, we consider Satan’s influence upon the nations. We start with the obvious fact that Satan was instrumental in the fall of our race during a time of probation in Eden (Genesis 3:1-24). A fierce adversary is introduced into the biblical narrative from the very beginning, although it is foretold that this adversary ultimately will be defeated by the seed of the woman (Genesis 3:15). According to the subsequent chapters of Genesis, Satan managed to deceive much of the world soon after Adam and Eve’s expulsion from Eden, although an elect line did remain—the line of Seth, as recounted in Genesis 4:26. The first city was built by Cain in the Land of Nod, and named for his first born son, Enoch. The Cain-Enoch genealogy in Genesis 4:17 ff. implies that the city became a center of unbelief and opposition to the purposes of God. Then we read of the Nephilim (Genesis 6), followed by YHWH’s judgment upon “the world that was” in the form of the flood (Genesis 6:9-9:29). No sooner did Noah and his family leave the safety of the ark, we read of the rise of two more cities hostile to God’s purposes and his people, Nineveh (Genesis 10:11-12) and Babel (Genesis 11). The early course of redemptive history is characterized as a period of increasing human wickedness, manifested in city-states hostile to God due to the spiritual darkness of satanic deception (Genesis 6:5).

As the course of redemptive history continues to unfold throughout the balance of the Old Testament, we read of repeated instances of various nations and empires arising and persecuting the people of God. The list is long, but includes the Egyptians and its pharaoh, followed by the various Canaanite tribes, most notably the Moabites, then came the Assyrians and the fall of the northern kingdom (Israel), before Nebuchadnezzar conquered Judah and destroyed the city of Jerusalem and its temple in 587 BCE. Although Jerusalem and the temple were rebuilt in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, the people of God now found themselves as tenants in their own land, living under the rule of a series of pagan Gentile empires (The Persians, Greeks, and Romans). These are nations which fell under Satan’s sway, acting as his agents by marshaling their resources against the people of God. This extensive evidence from the biblical narrative points in the direction that Satan’s influence upon the nations during their opposition to God’s purposes is very likely in the background of John’s vision when he refers to nations being freed from satanic control when attempted if not completed.

A second factor to be considered is Satan’s power of deception, which often takes the form of idolatry and the worship of pagan deities is expressed in continual apostasy among the Israelites, seen initially in the wilderness of the Sinai, and then more openly once the Israelites have conquered the promised land of Canaan. The Canaan narratives inform us that like Adam, Israel never fulfilled the commission given them in Isaiah 49:6, “I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.” Because of Israel’s rank unbelief seen in the nation and the idolatry of successive kings evident in their persistent disobedience to YHWH’s covenant, Israel comes under the covenant curses and repeatedly ends up as subjects of godless Gentile nations and their foreign gods. Israel’s witness to the Gentile nations regarding YHWH’s gracious promise of future restoration which includes them, coupled with the hope of a final redemption from sin, was largely absent. In the absence of such a witness—the light of which exposed satanic error hiding in darkness, Satan continued to deceive the nations and was able to keep them walking in darkness.

Third, we fast forward to the New Testament era, where much more information is given us about the devil, his intentions, and the extent of his power. He is called Satan, which comes from the Hebrew for “accuser.” He is also called the devil, (diabolos—the Greek translation of the Hebrew satan). We learn of two names given to Satan, Belial and Beelzebul. He is variously identified as the Adversary, the Dragon, the Enemy, the Serpent, the Tester, and the Wicked One.[2] Satan is said to rule a host of fallen angels (Matthew 25:41), and he has been given control of the world (i.e., Luke 4:6), which indicates that Satan’s actions are limited by God’s providence, a point well captured by Martin Luther’s famous dictum, “the devil is God’s devil.”

Satan dominates non-Christians (John 8:44; Colossians 1:13), he is destructive of life and property (Luke 8:33), and he must be resisted (1 Corinthians 7:5). He is said to be exceedingly cunning (2 Corinthians 2:11), he tempts people to sin (Ephesians 6:11), and he opposes those who preach the gospel (1 Thessalonians 2:18). Especially important for our discussion, recall that Jesus responds to a hostile crowd by declaring, “you are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). Satan is, therefore, the progenitor of lies and deception, and will do anything in his power to oppose the proclamation of the gospel. We see his opposition to the gospel at work when Jesus tells Peter, who implores our Lord not to go to Jerusalem to suffer and die, “get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you [Peter] are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man” (Matthew 16:23).

An important theme running throughout the New Testament is the repeated references to Jesus’s triumph over Satan and the curtailing of his deceptive powers through our Lord’s death and resurrection. Jesus appeared in the fullness of time (Galatians 4:4-5), but his public ministry did not commence until after he had resisted Satan’s temptations in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11). In an unexpected turn of events, Jesus’s messianic mission appeared to come to an end with his death by crucifixion on Good Friday. But by Easter Sunday, it was abundantly clear that Satan’s victory over the promised Messiah was actually a complete and total defeat. By orchestrating the death of Jesus, ironically Satan ensured his own demise.

Our Lord completes the redemptive mission which Adam and then Israel failed to accomplish, when he fulfills all righteousness through his own personal obedience to God’s commandments, thereby providing a justifying righteousness for his people, while bearing the guilt of our sin in his own flesh. The accuser can no longer accuse, if the guilt and power of sin is removed from those whom he would otherwise incriminate. Paul encourages struggling Christians in Colossae by reminding them of Satan’s complete and total defeat. “And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him” ( (Colossians 2:13-15). Satan is a thoroughly defeated foe whose end is certain, which echoes what Paul had previously told the Romans. “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet” (Romans 16:20).

Of great significance for our discussion is that in foretelling of his coming death and resurrection, Jesus speaks of “binding” the devil and destroying his works (cf. Matthew 12:27-29, Mark 3:22-27, Luke 11:14-23). When John speaks of the devil as bound (Revelation 20:2), no doubt, the Lord’s words are in view. Our Lord’s victory over Satan sets the stage for the command for God’s people to make disciples of “all nations” (Matthew 28:19). After Jesus tells his disciples that the gospel must be preached as a witness to those same nations before he returns (Matthew 24:14), and he promises to be with his people until the end of the age (Matthew 28:20). Jesus also informs his disciples that the gates of Hell will not prevail against his church (Matthew 16:18), words which are an obvious reference to limits to be placed on Satan’s power. Initially, Jesus sends out the twelve to preach the gospel, but they are followed by the commissioning of seventy-two disciples to do the same (Luke 10:1 ff.). Upon their return, when they report to Jesus that demons are subject to them, Jesus tells the returning preachers that through their preaching he saw Satan fall like lightening from heaven. Satan has been “cast down” to earth (Luke 10:18), a point also made in John 12:31, when Jesus speaks directly to the matter of the binding of Satan. “Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out.” As we will see momentarily, the same thing is also affirmed in Revelation 12:7-17.

This, then, is the redemptive historical context through which we must attempt to understand John’s vision of the “binding of Satan” in Revelation 20:1-3, 7. Satan being bound and cast into the abyss is not an isolated event yet to occur and still off in the distant future. Jesus is the light to the nations and protector of his people. The truth, power, and light of his gospel overcomes the darkness and deception of the devil’s lies. The biblical evidence reveals to us that the devil is currently bound as the direct result of Jesus’s messianic mission, his cross, and the empty tomb. Satan is bound, says our Lord, through the preaching of the gospel. When we survey the biblical data regarding Satan’s binding before giving careful consideration to John’s vision in chapter 20:1-3, 7, it becomes apparent that the binding (or “casting down”) of Satan is a reference to the success of the gospel now that Satan’s power to deceive the nations has been broken.

What Does John Mean When He Speaks of Satan Being Bound in Revelation 20:1-3, 7?

John’s visions in Revelation are given in the language of apocalyptic symbolism. John does not intend for us to understand these things literally, but rather to read them in light of the Old Testament, where these symbols and images appear previously. The symbolic nature of the vision is obvious. How can an angel bind an immaterial spiritual being (Satan) with a real chain? How can a spiritual being be locked away in a pit? This is apocalyptic symbolism plain and simple.

First up is the matter of the proper identification of this particular angel and then determining the meaning of the symbolism of the key to the abyss and the chain. The answer to the angel’s identity is tied to the use of “keys,” which are mentioned throughout the Book of Revelation. In Revelation 1:18, Christ holds the keys of Death and Hades in his hand. In chapter 3:7, the Holy One has the key of David which opens and shuts. In Revelation 9:1-2 we read that “the fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss.”

Given the symbolism of the keys prior to this vision, we already possess the “key” (pun intended) to interpret correctly the symbols mentioned by John in Revelation 20:1-3, 7, with some degree of certainty. The Abyss is a reference to Death and Hades–the realm with which Satan is most closely associated in the Book of Revelation. Having been cast of out heaven (according to Revelation 12:7-9), John sees an angel (who is either Jesus, or an angel exercising the Lord’s authority) confining Satan to the abode of the dead. Satan has been cast from heaven where he had been making accusations against the saints (i.e., Job 1:6-12; Zechariah 3:1-10). According to verses 2-3 of Revelation 20, which are repeated here, the angel “seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time.”

John’s vision should be interpreted in light of the background we have previously established. But we must also give due consideration to what John specifically says of this “binding.” Satan is bound to the Abyss–the realm of Death and Hades–for a specified time (a thousand years). He is bound for a specific purpose—he is prevented from “deceiving the nations” until the thousand years are over. The imagery of the devil being bound restates in apocalyptic symbolism the biblical data considered previously. Satan has been “cast down” and “bound.” After Jesus’s death and resurrection, Satan is prevented from deceiving the nations en masse—not that he won’t attempt to deceive the nations. This is unlike the prior period of redemptive history (considered above) when the devil was able to mobilize pagan Gentile powers to oppose and assault the people of God until his defeat on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. John is describing the age of the gospel, in which that gospel is to be proclaimed to all the nations. Therefore, the correct reading of Revelation 20:1-3 is that Satan is currently bound by the preaching of the gospel. His lies are exposed and his powers of deception are greatly diminished in the new covenant era. It is the proclamation of Christ crucified and risen which “binds” the devil.

But to be clear and avoid misconception as much as possible, the binding of Satan does not in any sense mean that all of his evil activities cease during the thousand years. In fact, John has already warned us in Revelation 12:12 that after Satan is cast out of heaven, “woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.” Like a sick or wounded animal sure to die, Satan is actually more dangerous now than he was when he had free access to heaven–even while confined to the Abyss. Satan has been defeated by Christ’s death and resurrection. His doom is assured. One little word shall fell him. The truth of the gospel exposes his lies for what they are. But with the time he has left, Satan rages against the people of God trying to muster his increasingly feeble power. The gospel of Christ crucified is to Satan what kryptonite is to Superman.

Nevertheless, John reports in his prior visions that since Satan has nothing to lose, he wages war on the saints and at times, appears to overcome them. This is why Peter speaks of Satan as our enemy who “prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (I Peter 5:8). This is why Paul can speak of Satan as “the god of this age, who blinds the minds of unbelievers” (2 Corinthians 4:4). You can put a vicious dog on a chain, but you sure don’t want to get within the radius of the chain, or you’ll still get mauled!

At no point does John say or imply that Satan ceases all activity during the thousand years. In fact, Scripture warns us that the devil’s rage increases because he knows the end is coming. But John does say that Satan is prevented from deceiving the nations so as to organize them against the people of God (Christ’s church) as he once did during the Old Testament era. Is this not what John has been reporting from the very beginning of his Apocalypse? The Beast was already manifest in John’s day in the form of the Roman Empire (the fourth empire of Daniel’s vision—cf. Daniel 7). But Christ has defeated the Roman Caesar, evident in the fact that we can go to Rome today and walk among the ruins of a once great persecuting empire.

Rome’s Antichrist emperors have come and gone, relegated to the annals of history. Indeed, beasts in many forms have come and gone throughout the age, persecuting the church for a time, only to be overcome by the testimony of the saints and the blood of the Lamb. Hitler’s thousand year Reich lasted less than fifteen years. Stalin’s great socialist utopia collapsed before our eyes. Even though nations who persecute the church come and go, they are prevented from organizing against the church as a whole and destroying it as the Assyrians and Babylonians did to the divided kingdoms of Israel. Inevitably these empires all come to an end–oftentimes a bloody end brought about by the providential intervention of God.

That said, in verse 7 John reveals that one day Satan will be released from the abyss at the time of the end. No longer bound, Satan will again organize the nations against Jesus Christ and his church, only to be crushed by Jesus on the day of his second advent when our Lord delivers his people once and for all, when we are raised from the dead, final judgment is meted out, and the new heavens and earth appear, the home of everlasting righteousness. But this can only take place before Christ’s return (Revelation 20:7-9), not after, since Satan has already been cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:10) from which there is no release.

How Then Ought We Understand Jude 6 and 2 Peter 2:4?

Some interpreters connect the binding of Satan in Revelation 20 to Jude 6 (cf. 2 Peter 2:4), in which fallen angels are said to be kept in everlasting chains in darkness awaiting the final judgment. Does this have any relevance for interpreting Revelation 20? Likely not. The reference in 2 Peter 2:4-6 to angels being kept in chains in Tartarus (ESV, “hell”) until the judgment has a time reference, “when they sinned.” This would place the binding of such angels at the time of Satan’s fall, or else as Peter indicates in verse 5, at the time of Noah and the flood, which is “the destruction of the world that then existed” (2 Peter 3:6). Jude likewise speaks of these angels being bound until the day of judgment, which is possibly the subject of Isaiah 24:21-22, where we read: “On that day the Lord will punish the host of heaven, in heaven, and the kings of the earth, on the earth. They will be gathered together as prisoners in a pit; they will be shut up in a prison, and after many days they will be punished.” Other than this scant mention, there are no other texts which speak to this. So, at the time of Satan’s fall, or at the time of Noah and the flood, a number of fallen angels were bound and are presently awaiting the time of final judgment.

Does this binding of fallen angels relate to Revelation 20 and to John’s reference to the binding of Satan? Probably not directly, although the reference to fallen angels also might provide redemptive-historical background to John’s vision. Whether or not Jesus is the angel who is said to bind Satan in Revelation 20:1-3, it is our Lord’s resurrection which gives him the keys (authority) over Death and Hades, which is the abode of the Dragon (Satan), as well as the key to the chains of Tartarus.

A Response to the Primary Objection to the Present Binding of Satan—The Presence of Evil

The most compelling and common argument against the amillennial interpretation of the binding of Satan is the painfully obvious fact that evil and unbelief flourish throughout the present age. The reality of such evil supposedly proves that Satan is not yet bound, therefore John’s vision must refer to a future event which occurs after Christ’s second advent. This is the standard premillennial objection to the amillennial interpretation and is, at first glance, quite compelling.

But this objection mistakenly assumes that the binding of Satan requires the complete elimination of evil, which is not the case. Furthermore, this observation, while true—evil seems to abound—overlooks the extensive biblical context for John’s vision as set forth above. It should be pointed out that this premillennial objection is merely an observation about the present age, and not an effort to interpret the vision in light of the biblical context which tells us what John actually means. When we place the vision in its biblical context, it is clear, if not obvious, that John is referring to the inevitable success of the missionary enterprise, not the elimination of all satanic activity which does come with his final destruction at our Lord’s return. As previously noted, satanic resistance actually increases during the “thousand years,” yet is now too impotent to stop the progress of the gospel.

It is also probably worth noting that given the effects of the fall upon the human race, it is not as though there would be no sin and evil apart from satanic activity and temptation. Our hearts our filled with deceit (Jeremiah 17:9), our thoughts are continuously evil (Genesis 6:5), we are darkened in our understanding (Ephesians 4:18-19), and we are prone to all sorts of evil desires (James 3:9). I could go on, but the point is made. There would be great evil in the world even if there were no devil.

But the nagging question lingers. How can deception of the nations persist if Satan is “bound?” The answer is that Satan is presently bound in the sense described above (through the preaching of the gospel). Jesus and the authors of the New Testament are clear that the devil is already defeated and cannot organize empires and nations to stop the missionary activities of the church during the present age, as he was able to do with Adam and Israel, before his ultimate defeat at Calvary and the Garden Tomb. No doubt, Satan will certainly attempt to thwart the progress of the gospel and the kingdom of God, but ultimately he will fail. Being bound does not prevent Satan from trying to deceive. But it does prevent him from succeeding.

Our contemporary world is rife with examples of nations which openly oppress God’s people and seek to silence them (i.e., The People’s Republic of China, North Korea, the Islamic Republic of Iran). Yet, reports abound that many people become Christians in these nations despite the efforts of these governments to stamp out Christianity and prevent its spread. The kingdom of Jesus Christ will grow and thrive all the while persecution and political conditions appear to be getting worse (cf. Revelation 11 and the account of the two witnesses). The spread of Christ’s kingdom is a consequence of the proclamation of the gospel and tied to the effectual call of God’s elect–which John describes as a multitude so vast they cannot be counted (Revelation 7:9). But the relentless advance of Christ’s kingdom does not necessarily translate into corresponding economic, cultural, and religious progress as our postmillennial friends insist. In some cases, there will be a corresponding positive effect upon the culture. But in many cases there will not. Preaching the gospel often results in persecution, hardship, and even martyrdom. Jesus says world conditions will be the same until his return, as they were in the days of Noah (Matthew 24:37). Yet, the gospel still accomplishes God’s purpose in the face of persecution, bringing his elect to faith and establishing congregations of believers.

According to John’s vision, Satan will be released for a short time before the end (Christ’s second advent), when the devil will be allowed to deceive the nations for one final outbreak of an organized political, economic, and military attack against Christ’s church (Revelation 20:7-10) immediately before the Lord’s return. Meanwhile, the gospel will go to the ends of the earth, even as Satan rages like a wounded animal. He is enraged precisely because he knows his time is short and his end is already determined (compare 1 Peter 5:8 with Revelation 12:12).

Summing Up

In Revelation 20:1-3, 7, John describes a vision of Satan as bound during this present age so that he cannot deceive the nations as he was able to do prior to Jesus’s death and resurrection, the basis of Satan’s defeat. The answer to the question, “how can Satan be bound even as evil continues?” is found by considering the context of the vision and then looking to John’s explanation as to what he means when he says that Satan is bound and cast into the abyss. Once confined, Satan can no longer successfully “deceive the nations” until the thousand years are over. But John actually warns us that as a defeated foe, Satan’s rage is at its greatest before the Lord returns. But the devil’s power to deceive is broken through the proclamation of the gospel. Satan cannot stop the spread of the gospel, try as he will.

Therefore, when viewed against the backdrop of redemptive history (culminating in Christ’s saving work), the binding of Satan is directly tied to the success of the missionary enterprise. Satan was bound when his power of deception over nations and empires was broken by our Lord’s death and resurrection. John is not referring to the absence of all evil and unbelief as premillennarians contend our position entails, nor that the devil ceases all attempt to deceive nations—but something he cannot fully accomplish.

The amillennial interpretation is the correct one—especially in light of the fact the premillennarians can neither explain the presence of people on the earth after Christ returns (in either natural or redeemed bodies) nor find any people supposedly deceived who participate in a satanically driven revolt, since Satan will be cast into the Lake of Fire when Jesus returns. The problem for premillennarians is simple but vexing: after our Lord returns, there are none on earth to be deceived, nor is there a devil to deceive them. All things have been made new!

Also see: The Great Tribulation and the Great Commission

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[1] Rcihard Bauckham, The Climax of Prophecy (Edinburgh: T & T Clark 1993), 330; Dennis E. Johnson, Triumph of the Lamb (Phillipsburg: P & R, 2001), 290.

[2] The biblical data is conveniently summarized here, Walter A. Elwell and Barry J. Beitzel, Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1988) s.v. “Satan”; and here: John D. Barry et al., eds., The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016), s.v. “Satan.”

[3] I refer the reader to the discussion of this in G. K. Beale, Revelation, New International Greek Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999), 984-991.

Who Said That?

"In one important sense, Marxism is a religion.  To the believer it presents, first, a system of ultimate ends that embody the meaning of life, and are absolute standards by which to judge events and actions; and, secondly, a guide to those ends which imply a plan of salvation and the indication of the evil from which mankind, or a chosen section of mankind, is to be saved.  We may specify still further:  Marxist socialism also belongs to that subgroup which promises paradise on this side of the grave."

Please leave your guess in the comments section using the link below.  Please no google searches or cheating. Don’t ruin it for everyone else!

Answer: This is from the opening section of Joseph Schumpter's influential book, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy (1942), 5. An interesting insight from a non-Christian (or a nominal Christian) economist.